The First Mallrat
by Chilari
Summary: Longterm. Begins pre-tribe. If there's 1 character in the Mall at the beginning who was never there in the series, how do her decisions change the course of the Tribe? Faye's been there since the virus. Now the Mallrats start arriving and change her world
1. The cat and the bear

It was morning. Light filtered through the grimy curtainless window and woke me up. I groaned and got up, pulled on my clothes, and made my way through the empty mall to the cafe to make breakfast. I carefully measured the right amount of water into the saucepan and placed it onto the camping stove. It took a few tries to strike a match, and when I touched the flame to the gas it flared up a moment then settled the normal. As I waited for the water to boil I opened a nearby cupboard and pulled out a tin of cat food. Rabbit and duck. Taking a clean dish from the same cupboard, I opened the tin and scraped half of the meat into the dish. I threw the spoon casually into the washing up bowl, sealed the tin with a plastic lid, and placed the dish on the floor under the table.

"Snowflake! Time for breakfast!"

Not waiting for the cat to come, I turned back to the counter and selected the cereal I wanted. The coco pops had long since run out, but there still a few boxes of honey nut cornflakes; after than, only rice crispies and bran flakes. I poured some cornflakes into my breakfast bowl and added a little water, not too much. I took a fresh spoon from the drawer and sat down, scooping up my cornflakes as I looked at the newspaper.

The headline read "Virus death toll latest" in huge black letters, and under that, in smaller bold lettering, "Hospitals and cemeteries full. Bodies of dead burned in pits." I read the article underneath it, knowing each word before my eyes met it. I didn't look at the picture; I didn't need to. I'd been there, along with dozens of other mourning kids.

"This was the last ever newspaper," I told the enormous bear sitting across from me. "It's hardly news any more. I don't know why you read it every day."

I got up, leaving the paper in front of the teddy bear, to check on my water. It was boiled now. I fetched my favourite mug from the drying up rack next to the sink and poured the water into it. I opened another cupboard to reveal boxes and boxes of different types of tea. After a moment's hesitation, I chose the assam. I'd not had assam tea for a few weeks. I dunked the teabag in with a teaspoon, stirred it, pressed it against the side of the mug and scooped it out, dropping the teabag into the compost bucket.

As I turned back to the table, Snowflake rounded the corner and went right for her food bowl. I sat down and reached a hand under the table to stroke her, then slowly drank my tea.

"If you want some tea, get some for yourself," I told Edward the bear. He didn't move, just say there with his smile and his smart blue waistcoat that stretched across his large belly. He'd not worn the waistcoat when I'd found him in the gift shop. I got it for him from the men's formalwear shop. It suited his golden fur.

I finished my tea and quickly washed up all my breakfast things in the minimal of water possible. Snowflake came up to me as I was doing so and wound herself around my legs, looking up at me, asking for strokes.

"I can't stroke you now, Snowy, my hands are wet, and you don't like wet. Wait til I've finished washing up, okay?"

When I finished I picked up my cat and stroked her, tickled her under her chin and behind her ears. She purred with pleasure and dug her claws into my arm.

"Ouch! Okay, time for you to get down now," I told her. "I have to fetch some water from the tank. It rained last night, did you know?"

It was still drizzling when I got up to the roof with four empty bottles. I glanced over at my garden. The rain had done it some good. The leaves seemed a little greener than they had been, the buds of the flowers a little larger. I smiled, then turned back to the water tank. Going on tip toe, I looked over the edge. It was fuller than it had been in a long time, perhaps a foot deep. I tapped off enough water to fill the bottles I'd brought up with me. The water wasn't quite clear, but there was nothing I could do about that. The water that collected in the tank was never clean, but that didn't matter. I only used rainwater for washing in and feeding the cat. There was still enough bottled water and other drinks left for me to drink.

I heard a siren. Leaving the bottles where they were on the gravel of the flat roof, I crossed to the edge of the roof and looked down, clinging to the steel railings. A soggy newspaper on the distant pavement flapped in the wind next to an unturned shopping trolley.

A kid with green hair came running round the corner, followed by a few older guys dressed in dark overalls. They followed the green haired boy on roller blades, and were catching up with him. Behind the rollerblade kids came the police car, the windscreen replaced with some sort of wire mesh, the whole thing covered in red and black graffiti. Standing in the car with torsos out the top through the sun roof were two people. Zoot had his arms crossed above his head, and was shouting "Power and Chaos" over the sounds of the car and the siren. Beside him was Ebony, her hair in a style I'd not seen before. Both had red and black tribe paint on their faces. They passed around another corner, still chasing the green haired boy, and the siren faded away, leaving the street empty for as far as I could see.

I shook my head, gathered up my water bottles, and returned inside. Once I'd stowed them neatly I pondered what to do. Could I spare some batteries to listen to some music? I decided against it, and made my way to what had once been the comic shop. I flicked through a few before settling on a Spiderman one, which I took to the furniture store to read. There was a large comfortable sofa in there, but it was too big to take down to the store I'd claimed for my own bedroom.

I'd been reading the Spiderman comic for maybe fifteen minutes when I heard something. It was definitely in the Mall. At first I thought it was just Snowflake messing around, but then she jumped up onto the sofa and sat on my lap, and the sound came again.

There was someone in the Mall.


	2. Desperate need of company

Quietly I closed the comic and dislodged Snowflake from my lap. I looked around the shop for something I could use as a weapon but there was nothing. There would be in the sports shop, but to get there I'd have to leave the furniture shop and sneak arround the gallery unseen to the other side. Crouching, I glanced out into the Mall, looked left and right, and began crawling close to the walls around the gallery. Every few moments I looked down over the edge to see if I could see the intruder, but I couldn't.

I was about half way around when I saw him. He was a red-headed boy of maybe fourteen. He wore a heavy backpack over one shoulder and was slowly climbing the stairs. He was looking around, at the moment away from me. I quickly stood and concealed myself behind a graffiti-covered pillar, then peered around it to watch him. His head swung towards me then away, as he turned to the upper part of the stairs and climbed them facing away from me.

I hurried silently to the next pillar, looked at him, and moved to the next. Now I was closer to the sports shop, but no longer directly behind him. He'd nearly reached the top of the stairs. He looked to the right, then slowly to the left, and seizing my chance I crossed to the sports shop.

Once inside I kept away from the door. I watched him from behind the manikin in the window, taking up a cricket bat as I did so. I looked around the shop quickly, then back to the boy standing at the top of the stairs. I saw him walk towards the cafe and crouch down by the table I'd been sitting at earlier. There was no time to lose. Soon he'd go into the cafe's kitchen and steal all my food. I grabbed a backstop's helmet and crammed it onto my head, then picked the cricket bat up from the floor and ran out, shouting.

He'd been looking at my newspaper, but upon hearing my wordless shout he turned around quickly and stumbled backwards, knocking Edward from his chair. He landed hard on the floor and dropped his bag.

I stopped a few metres from him, my cricket bat raised threateningly.

"How did you get in here?" I demanded. I'd secured the Mall to make it impenetrable long ago, before the would-be looters had come. They'd rattled on the security grilles for more than a day, trying to get in and steal the food I'd found in various shops around the Phoenix Mall. All their efforts hadn't done a thing, but now this scrawny, clumsy boy had found a way in and I needed to know how.

"Uh, through the s-sewers."

The door to the sewers had been padlocked, but they were made of wood and would not be difficult to break down after so long a neglect. I cursed inwardly and made a note to repair the door and make it more secure.

"Who are you?" I asked harshly. "What tribe?"

"I'm Jack," the boy said. "I don't have a tribe. Just me." He held out his arms and grinned nervously as if to show he was harmless. "I was looking for somewhere safe to stay." There was a slight lisp to his speech that had already started to annoy me.

I wanted to tell him he could keep looking, because this was my place and I didn't like strangers. But after being here so long, alone, I desperately needed company. I recalled my "conversations" with Snowflake and Edward. It would be nice to have a reply for once.

"What's in the bag?" I asked Jack, lowering the cricket bat a little.

He glanced at it, then looked back to me. "Not much. A couple of car batteries. A little food, some water."

At the mention of car batteries, I had an idea. Electricity in the Mall again. I could cook more with a microwave or oven working than just my little camping stove, which anyway was running out of gas. I could use the laundrette to wash my clothes instead of doing so by hand in cold rainwater. "Could you hook those batteries up to the mains?"

He nodded.

"Okay. You can stay, provided you do your fair share of the cooking and stuff, and you help me repair the door you broke."

Jack nodded emphatically. "Uh huh, absolutely. Yes." He pushed himself to his feet.

I reached past him to place the cricket bat on the table. Jack flinched as I did so, then grinned nervously and muttered a discreet "heh" when he realised I wasn't trying to hurt him. I pulled the helmet off over my head, releasing my squashed hair, and placed that too on the table.

"Hungry? I've got cereal. No milk, of course, but you can have it with water."

"Thanks. It is...?" He pointed with both hands towards the cafe kitchen.

"Yeah. Cereal's on the counter. Water in the fridge."

Jack looked surprised. "Fridge? You have a fridge?"

"It doesn't work, I don't have electricity. It's just where I put the drinking water." I was slightly amused.

He nodded with a quick small smile and I followed him into the kitchen to find a bowl and a spoon for him. Snowflake slithered in after and wandered around my feet in figures of eight, then strutted across to Jack, who stepped back at her touch and offset her. She meowed mournfully and looked up and Jack.

"Her name's Snowflake," I told him as I put the bowl and spoon on the counter in front of him. "Stroke her, she likes it."

Jack looked down and then back up at me. "Snowflake?"

"Yes," I told him. "It's a joke. Not a very good one, I'll admit. But it was better than calling her something obvious like Blackie or Jet."

"Heh," he said, and smiled quickly and crouched to stroke her. Snowflake headbutted him and he scratched her behind the ears, then straightened, hesitated, and poured his cereal.

"Where are you from?" I asked, passing him water from the non-functional fridge.

"Oh, just... around. You know, moving from place to place." He smiled that quick nervous smile of his that I was already getting used to, flicked his eyes at me and then away with a little half cough half murmur of "hem". He added enough water to wet the cereal and I took the bottle back and screwed the lid back on. Jack looked up at me briefly, asked "You?" and then returned his gaze to his breakfast.

I put the water back in the fridge. "I've been here since the virus. Not stepped outside once, except on the roof, where it's safe."

"What, never gone out there in six months?"

I raised an eyevrow. "I can see what it's like out there from the roof. Zoot and his police car. I saw him pass earlier today, actually. Chasing some green haired kid. From what I've seen, you're either part of Zoot's Power and Chaos gang or you get chased by them. I'm happy in here, where it's safe."

Jack nodded.

"Come on, sit down in the cafe, you can't eat that standing up." I led him out of the kitchen and sat down in my usual chair, leaned down and picked up Edward, and returned the huge teddy to his seat. "Pull up a chair," I instructed Jack as I moved the cricket bat and the helmet onto the floor out of the way.

He ate the honey nut cornflakes quickly, clearly hungry, but didn't ask for seconds. Snowflake had followed us through, and I stroked her idly while Jack finished his breakfast.

"How about a tour, since you'll be staying here a while."

"I can really stay here?" he asked. "Forever?"

"I could do with the company," I admitted. "You're welcome to stay as long as you like."

This time Jack's smile was genuine and grateful. I smiled back at him.

"My name's Faye," I told him, recalling that I'd not introduced myself earlier. "So how about that tour?"

"Sure, yeah. Thanks Faye."


	3. Of rooves, electrics and storage rooms

I rose from my seat. "Well, you've already found the cafe and the kitchen. This huge teddy is Edward. You knocked him off his chair when you got here, but that's not a problem. The furniture shop is over there," I said, pointing to the large store I'd been in when he arrived. "Come this way," I continued, beckoning around the corner. "The bathroom shop is just down there. There was never any plumbing in there, but that doesn't matter since there's no water supply any more. There is a stockpile of soap and shampoo and stuff in there, and bottles of rainwater in the store room opposite for washing with. Don't use more than is necessary, though. You remember a couple of months back when it didn't rain for weeks? Well, by the end of that I was pretty smelly and Snowflake didn't like me. When it rained again I went out on the roof and danced in it." Why was I telling him that? Spending six months talking to no-one but a cat and a teddy must have had a profound effect on me.

I led Jack all around the Mall, ignoring the shops I never went into but pointing out the electrical store, which I thought he might find useful if he was going to hook up his car batteries to some of the appliances. I studied the sewer door he'd broken through to get in. The thing was rotten through and hadn't seemed to be too much of a challenge, even to a guy and scrawny as Jack. Past it was my room, in what had once been a less busy part of the Mall and in the small shop which had previously sold gifts and trinkets. I'd remodeled the whole room before I moved into it a few months before, and with some paint I'd found in a store room had redecorated too, so now it didn't look at all like the gift shop it had once been. All that stuff I'd moved into the shop next door, the counters and displays in a store room nearby. I had film posters on the walls I'd found in the comic book shop, a bed and a chest of drawers I'd struggled to bring down from the furniture store, and clothes from all the fashion shops around the Mall.

"I should show you the roof," I said after we left my room, and on the way up explained about the water tank and my garden, where I'd planted out from potted plants from inside the Mall and a few potatoes in the hope that they'd grow more. When we stepped out into the chilly day, it had stopped raining but cloud cover made it quite dull out. I pointed out the small white flowers on the potato plants.

"They're nearly ready, I think. I've never grown potatoes before, so I don't really know, but there's nothing else I could think to grow except apples, but nothing's happened to them yet. I don't think the compost has decomposed enough yet." I motioned to three large plant pots which had once held only plastic plants and gravel.

"So what's been going on out there?" I asked, leaning over the steel railing to look down on the street outside. "What's been happening since the virus?"

"Well," Jack began hesitantly as he joined me at the edge of the roof. "They've all divided up into tribes. Zoot's tribe is the Locusts. They own most of this sector. There are the Demon Dogs, the other side of the train yard. They all wear silver and paint their faces silver too. They're as bad as the Locos, only without a police car, and the two tribes fight a lot."

Jack continued, and I listened as he told me about so many tribes I lost count. There were the Roosters, the Jackals, the Moquitos, the Orphans, the Gulls, Tribe Circus, and plenty of others I simply forgot as soon as Jack said their names. Each wore different clothes and different tribepaint. Some even dyed their hair all the same colours as everyone else in the tribe. When the wind started blowing fresh rain in our faces we retreated inside.

"My Dad used to own the elctrical shop," Jack said suddenly. "That's why I came here."

"Well, you're welcome to it." I didn't know what else to say, and suddenly we'd run out of conversation. Small talk had never interested me before the virus; since it I'd had only a cat and a teddy bear to talk to. After Jack mumbled a quick "thanks", we lapsed into silence. We dawdled down the stairs towards Jack's dad's shop and lingered awkwardly at the bottom. I didn't meet his gaze, and I don't think he tried to meet mine.

"So, you have any brothers or sisters?" he asked after a while.

I sat down on the bottom step. "I had a brother. Older than me. He'd just started university when the virus came."

Jack took a seat beside me. He nodded in sympathy.

"You?"

"Nope, just me. My Dad taught me how to make things. I figured once I got here I might be able to make a proper electricty supply using some sort of wind turbine. I had this idea that if I could get hold of a large plastic barrel or something, I could cut it in half and use the two halves as sails. I'd hook _that_ up to a motor, and if I can make a transformer with some copper wire, bam! Electricity."

I was surprised by Jack's sudden passion for this wind turbine. His speech was much more confident than he'd been so far and even though I had no idea how his wind turbine would actually work, I offered to help out. A permanent electricity supply would be such a luxury. I'd never have to hand wash so much as a single sock again.

"Do you reckon it'd be possible to somehow purify the rainwater? It's not particularly clean, and if we could purify it and heat it, I could have a hot bath. I was using the filter jugs from the supermarket for a while, but it wasn't particularly effective and the filters ran out."

"Sure, shouldn't be too tricky. I've read somewhere about water filters. Hey, is there a book shop in here?"

I pointed it out to him. "Over there. I've already plundered some of the books for myself, but only the fiction and a few about gardening. And I threw out the biographies. I couldn't handle seeing them all there on the shelf when all those celebrities are dead now."

"Heh."

We sat in silence a few moments longer. There didn't seem to be anything to do. We'd both had breakfast, I'd fed Snowflake and fetched some water. I considered returning to the Spiderman comic I'd left in the furniture store, but that felt unfriendly. I tried to think what I would have done before the virus, but it had been too long.

"Well, take a look around the electronics shop and see what you can find. I'll have a look up in the store rooms upstairs, see what I can find that might be useful," I suggested.

"Uh, sure. Good idea." Jack slapped his knees and stood up. I left to hunt upstairs, not really expecting to discover anything of an real use.

The store rooms were dark, the windows small and obscured by cobwebs and dust and dirt. They were full of old cardboard boxes and shelves. It did not take long to sort through them. Many I'd already looked through to see if there was any more food up here. Some I had not, but a quick look at the contents of the shelves and boxes was all I needed to be certain there was nothing of use.

There were several store rooms, some of them unlocked, many locked shut. I had a store of keys that I'd found around the Mall in a box downstairs. I went to fetch them. It was a long task to sort through them all and find any that fit. Only a few were for doors up here into the storage rooms.

The first had some sheets of plywood and a few lengths of two-by-fours. I made a mental note of this, since they might turn out to be useful, and moved to the next store room. None of the keys fit; the next one hadn't been locked and I passed it to the fourth, which had. The last key in the box worked. Inside were some shelves, and at the back of the store room, two blue plastic barrels.

I moved over to them. They were both heavy with liquid. I pulled off the plastic bung from the top of one and peered inside. It looked clear, and I couldn't smell anything. I dipped in a finger enough to dampen it and licked it. It was water, but with a sharpness I'd not tasted since the virus. Carbonated, then. I guessed this was the water that once had been mixed with the syrups of fizzy drinks, back when the fast food store was open. Boxes of those syrups lined the shelves around me, and above them stacks of polystyrene burger boxes, cardboard cups and platic lids, confirming my suspicions.

The second barrel was just as full of carbonated water as the first, so while I'd found not only a huge water store and barrels suitable for use in Jack's wind turbine, there was a problem. I couldn't simply tip the water away; that would likely turn out to be a mistake. But I doubted there were enough empty bottles left in the Mall to drain even one of the barrels. Many still contained their original liquid. The rest were full of rainwater, or I'd thrown them out months ago before I'd realised how useful they might be. I thought I could collect maybe thrity bottles of varying sizes that were empty. It wouldn't empty the barrel, but it would be a start.

I hurried down into the Mall and then further, down the main stairs to the electrical shop.

"Jack, I found a couple of plastic barrels. They're full of water. Can you help me empty them into bottles, or are you busy?"

He looked busy when I paused long enough to see what he was doing, but put it down immediately.

"Great, sure. Show me the way."


	4. Growing things

It took nearly two weeks to make the wind turbine, and another to sort out the circuitry to actually use the power it generated. In the meantime I did my laundry by car battery and manually inserted rainwater. Jack got himself some new clothes from the shops around the Mall.

My garden grew a little every day, with every teabag used and every unwanted scrap of tinned fruit being added to it for compost. The potatoes were ready by the time Jack and I started on the water filter system. I put some aside to grow more, stored some wrapped in newspaper for later, and fried a few in oil.

They tasted delicious.

"It's so long since I had fried potato," I informed Jack, sitting back in my chair after we'd finished. It was also the first time we'd used the electric cooker. With the steady wind outside, the electricity supply had held out all day, with not so much as a flicker of a light.

"Uh huh," Jack replied. "I've missed potatoes. Carrots too. I used to love carrots."

"Me too," I said sadly. "But I didn't know how to grow them, and there aren't any seeds. And ice cream too. Everything in the supermarket melted and I had the throw it out. I miss ice cream."

"You know," Jack said ponderously, "We could probably get some from the garden centre at the edge of town."

I blinked in confusion. "Ice cream from a garden centre?"

"Huh? No, carrot seeds. Probably all sorts of seeds. Peas. Beans. Sweetcorn. Onion."

I wondered if we really could grow all that stuff in my little garden. Before the virus I'd never been too enthusiastic about vegetables; they were just vegetables. But now things were very different. Fresh vegetables sounded like heaven, like the pinnacle of luxury alongside flushing toilets and TV.

"So, what do you say to a trip out to the garden centre?" Jack asked, breaking me from my musings.

"I don't know," I said, uneasily. It was a nice thought that there might be fresh vegetables, but in order to get them we'd have to leave the security and comfort of the Mall and brave the city and all the many tribes it contained. It was a thought that terrified me. "Maybe I should stay here, keep the place locked up until you get back in case someone finds their way in while we're gone. And Snowflake will need looking after."

The cat had become ill recently. She'd taken to lying around for hours at a time, mewing mournfully occasionally. I'd moved her basket, litter box and food bowl to the little platform half way down the stairs so I could keep an eye on her from as much of the Mall as possible.

Jack could probably tell that I was using Snowflake's condition as an excuse to stay in the Mall, but he accepted it.

"Right," he said. "I'll leave in the morning then. You'll soon see, we'll have fresh veggies in no time." He grinned in that nervous way of his, but I could tell he was disappointed.

That night, I could hear Zoot's siren faintly through the walls.

Jack left early the next morning. Before he went, he asked me if I was sure I didn't want to go with him. I was; I wished him luck and he left, a messenger bag full of comics and food for trade over his shoulder.

The Mall seemed so empty without him, and for the first time since the virus I worried about someone other than myself. I sat with Snowflake for much of the day, stroking her. She'd put on weight, no doubt from the combination of extra food and no exercise. I paced for a while. I looked around the Mall, checking everything was secure. I picked up a book and started reading it, then put it down ten minutes later having only read a page. I toured the Mall again. I went up on the roof. It was late morning by this point, and there were a few people around on the streets below. My concern grew as another hour passed and Jack had still not returned. I considered making lunch, but decided not to. Instead I went downstairs to wait near the sewer entrance.

I heard a faint noise from the sewer, then Jack crashed through the door and slammed it behind him.

"Was followed," he gasped, pressing his back to the door. On the other side, something thumped against it. "Get – get the cricket b-bat."

I ran up the stairs as fast as I could, pelted around the corner of the balcony and skidded to a halt outside the sports shop.I grabbed the cricket bat, shoved a tube of tennis balls under my arm, picked up a hockey stick, then ran back downstairs. Jack was still holding the door shut, but the thumping continued. I passed him the cricket bat, then moved back and opened the tube of tennis balls. With the hockey stick in one hand and a tennis ball in the other, I stood ready – or as ready as I could be when the thing I'd most feared was happening; hostile strangers were attacking my home.

I nodded to Jack. He jumped to the side and circled around to stand beside me. For the second time the door crashed open and two guys came running through.

I threw the tennis ball and grabbed another almost before the first hit the taller kid.

"Get out of my Mall," I shouted, and threw the second tennis ball before rushing at them. The shorter kid flinched back, but I wacked him in the shin anyway. Beside me, Jack's cricket bat met the other attacker's ribs. I prodded the shorter guy in the stomach; he make a "hurk" noise and bent over, backing towards the door.

"Shade, let's just go," he gasped to his taller companion.

The taller kid backed away from us. "Fine," he said. "But we'll be watching out for you if you ever step outside again."

They returned to the sewers. Without speaking, Jack and I rebuilt the barricade and secured the door more thoroughly than ever before.

"You okay?" I asked. "What happened?"

"They ambushed me as I was on my way back," Jack said. "I think they're tribeless."

"You got the seeds then?" I asked excitedly.

Jack opened the messenger bag ro reveal that it was full of seed packets. "There are a few in my pockets too. There was a tribe that had taken the place over. They were growing stuff themselves, but they were eager to trade."

As he spoke I rifled through the bag's contents. Carrots, onions, peas, tomatoes – all sorts of vegetables that we could grow. I chose one at random and looked on the back of the pack. There was a diagram of when carrots should be planted – early spring to mid summer – and when they could be harvested – early summer to mid autumn. With the potatoes recently harvested, there was space in the garden for carrots. It was perhaps a little late in the year to plant them, but I wanted to anyway.


	5. Newcomers

A few months later I was harvesting the carrots. On the street below I heard Zoot's siren as he passed by time and time again, out in force for some reason. I ignored it; it was no threat to me, safe here in the Mall. One of Snowflake's kittens – she'd been pregnant, not ill – climbed over and around me as I pulled up carrot after carrot. They weren't as big nor as uniform as carrots bought in shops had been, but they looked edible. I left half them in the soil, cleaned those I'd harvested in a bucket of rainwater, and headed back inside to show Jack the results of our joint efforts.

Unable to find him, I left the carrots in the kitchen, washed my hands in the sink, grabbed a can from the now-working fridge, and wandered to the furniture store to see of Jack was watching a video in there on the TV we'd rigged up to the electricity.

I heard voices from below just as I got there, and running footsteps followed by a crashing noise. Jack, who had been lying on a sofa reading, jumped up as I moved to the balcony rail and looked over. It was difficult to see at this angle, but there seemed to be a group of people down there, on the other side of the security shutter.

"Hey, stay calm," a confident female voice said. "There must be another way in. Come on, this way."

"What should we do?" Jack asked.

"Wait until they go away," I suggested. I didn't want them invading my home.

"You sure? They look like they're running from someone. Shouldn't we help them?"

He was right; but as he spoke one of the kittens poked his nose out downstairs. A girl beyond the shutter said, "Look, it's a kitten," but then a dog barked, making the kitten jump and hide.

"Quiet, Bob," the girl said. "It's only a kitten."

"I am not letting that dog in here," I whispered to Jack. "No chance."

There was a scream from downstairs.

"Now, where was I before I was so rudely interrupted?" a sinister male voice said from beyond the group I could half-see. "Looks to me like you got yourselves into a dead end. So just hand over your food and we'll leave you be."

As he spoke Jack moved past me toward the shutter controls at the top of the stairs. Before I could stop him he'd wound it up far enough to let the group of kids and their stupid dog into the Mall; then he let it drop shut as their pursuer reached it.

"Hey, let me in!" he shouted.

Well, it had started now. I walked down the stairs at a carefully measured pace. Jack stayed at the controls.

"You keep that dog on a tight leash," I told the girl with bunches that held him. "I don't want him scaring the kittens. What's the problem here?" I asked the girl who seemed to be in charge. She was tall and slim, and her hair was tied up in Zulu knots.

As I spoke I looked at the boy on the other side of the barrier. He looked older than most kids, perhaps seventeen. His dark hair was shoulder-length and had feathers in it. Behind him was a chubby guy of about the same age with really short hair, and a girl with butterfly tribepaint and divided blue and pink hair in bunches.

"Those jerks were trying to steal our food," the girl with the Zulu knots said as the feather-hair boy rattled the security gate angrily.

I ignored him, and looked around at the assembled group. Aside from the Zulu knots girl, there was a dark-haired boy of maybe fourteen who carried a pair of skates, a red-haired girl of the same age, two girls of about eleven – the bunches girl with the dog, and a frizzy-haired girl – and a boy of about eleven.

"What tribe are you?" I asked. No two of them, except the Zulu knot girl and the roller blade boy, seemed to have matching Tribepaint.

"We're not," the Zulu knot girl said.

"None of us are," the red haired girl added.

"Let us in now!" shouted the boy on the other side of the shutter.

"And them?" I continued, nodding towards him.

Zulu knot girl shrugged. "Not of any tribe I recognise," she said.

"Fine!" the boy said, "We'll find another way in. We'll get you, you'll see."

In response to that, Jack dropped the second shutter, effectively preventing the brute and his friends from going anywhere, let alone finding another way in.

"Hey. How did you do that? Let us out!" the boy shouted. "You better release us right now. I'm gonna count to ten and you'd better let us in. One, two, three-" he began slowly.

"Four, five, six, seven," Jack called from the top of the stairs, with each number descending a step. "Eight, nine, ten. Time's up. What are you gonna do, huh? A pretty empty threat, don't you think?" he said.

"When I get out of here I'm going to break every bone in your body," the boy threatened.

"Lex!" the girl with him protested.

"That's hardly going to encourage me to let you out, now is it?" Jack pointed out, then turned his back on the three trapped kids to face me. "Your call, Faye."

I sighed. I couldn't exactly throw these people out now. "Come on, let's head upstairs. Are you guys hungry? I just harvested my first home-grown carrots."

"You have fresh food? Where do you grow it?" the red haired girl asked eagerly.

"Up on the roof," I replied, leading the way up the stairs to the cafe.

"Do you actually live here?" the frizzy-haired little girl asked. "In a Mall?"

"Yes."

"Paul says he thinks it's really cool," the other girl said.

We reached the cafe.

"Take a seat. Anyone thirsty?" I asked, recalling how I'd greeted friends when they come over after school before the virus. I was glad Jack was there all of a sudden, not just because it meant I wasn't alone among strangers, but because by his presence over the past few months had gotten me used to having company again.

"Wow!" the frizzy haired girl exclaimed. "A giant teddy! Oh, he's wonderful! What's his name?"

I grinned. How long was it since I'd seen a child happy? "Edward," I told her.

Jack followed me into the kitchen. As I opened the fridge to take out some water and a few bottles of fizzy pop, he took a look at my harvest and murmured appreciatively.

"They seem nice," he commented.

"Yes. Don't say you told me so. But I'm still worried about the kittens. What if that dog scares them?" As I spoke one such kitten, who I'd named Darcy – I'd been reading Pride and Prejudice when Snowflake gave birth – twined around my legs and mewed, looking up at me with one claw in the leg of my jeans. "Come on, help me carry these out." I passed him a bottle of water and two of pop, then reached up to the cupboard to get some cups.

During what was left of that afternoon, I learned the names of our guests – Amber, Salene, Dal, Cloe, Patsy and Paul, who was deaf but could lip read and knew sign language. Salene and the younger children had been living rough near an inner-city playground not far away from the Mall for several months; Amber and Dal had been on their way out of the city to find an abandoned farm where they could grow their own food. Dal and Salene both asked eager questions about my vegetable garden, so I took them up to the roof to show them. While we were up there, Jack explained about the wind turbine to Dal, who was interested in that too. Jack was clearly flattered by the attention.

They all proffessed hunger, and since only Amber was carrying any food Jack and I cooked some of our store for them. They were all very grateful and they ate greedily.

Outside it soon got dark. Jack showed the kids to the furniture store where beds remained where they'd been on display back when people still did normal simple things like shopping. I leaned over the balcony, looking down at the trapped bully Lex and his friends. Amber joined me.

"We need to decide what to do with them," she stated.

"Give them the night to cool down then chuck them out on the streets. No longer our problem," I replied; it seemed so obvious I wondered why Amber thought there was any other option.

"What if they go to the Locos and lead them here?" Dal asked, coming up to join us.

"I think they were running from the Locos themselves," Amber said ponderously. "No, what I'm worried about isn't them, but us. We've got them trapped in the cage, but we also can't get out. Is there another way out?" she asked me.

"There's a door into the old sewers. Jack and I secured the door as much as a door that old and rotten can be, but if you want to leave that way it wouldn't be difficult to take down the barricade."

"Could anyone get in?" Amber pressed.

"Possibly," I said uncertainly, "But we'd hear them long before they could break through."

"I still can't believe you've got so much working here, just between the two of you," Amber said. "It's amazing. It must be great living here. Almost like the old world."

"Never like the old world," I replied. "Nothing ever will be. But I know what you mean. And like I said, you can stay as long as you like. We're a bit starved for company, to be honest, and it's not like we have a major food problem like everyone else. I got here before the looters so there was still most of the food on the shelves."

"Do you think," Amber began tentatively, "that we could get something real going here?"

"What," Dal said, "Like start our own tribe?"

"Yes. Just like that."

"Amber," Dal whined. "We're supposed to be going to the country, remember? Find an old farm and grow our own food."

"I know, Dal, but look at this place! Electrcity, clean water, soft beds and feather pillows. And there's more to think about than just us now. We can't easily bring the kids along through Loco territory, and you can grow things here, up on the roof. I'm sorry Dal, but I think our place is here now."

I was simultaneously flattered and annoyed. Flattered that Amber was so enamoured by the Mall that she wished to stay, and annoyed that she'd assumed I wouldn't mind the intrusion. But then I had told her they were welcome to stay as long as they wanted. I wished them goodnight and made my way downstairs to my own bedroom.


	6. Someone in the sewer

Morning came too quickly, and with it the decision about what to do with the three trapped between the security gates. While the kids ate breakfast, I met with Amber, Dal, Jack and Salene at the balcony rail overlooking the still-sleeping invaders.

"The truth is," Amber said, "If we're going to be a tribe we need to be able to defend ourselves and the kids. Those two lads look like they can handle themselves. If the Locos or any other trbe do find a way in, we won't be able to hold them back ourselves."

I shook my head. "I'm not happy about letting them in. I don't know about the other two, but that Lex guy –" I shook my head. "I don't like him and I don't trust him."

"Me neither," Dal said.

"So what do we do?" Jack asked.

"Offer a deal. They accept our terms of they're out. They go by our rules, they pull their weight just like everyone else, or they're out."

I still wasn't happy, but Amber was right. I could hold my own against one, maybe two attackers, and I was sure Amber and Dal were capable enough in a fight, but against a whole tribe we wouldn't have a chance, even with the benefit of a defensive position, if the Locos found us and decided to attack.

"Okay," I said at last.

"Dal?"

Dal nodded reluctantly.

"Salene?"

"Okay."

"Jack?"

"I guess there's not much choice," he replied. "If they found the Mall the Locos can."

With a slight reluctance and a feeling of finality, I followed Amber down the stairs. Letting in the three strays felt significant to me, beyond what it meant to everyone else. It was a change, a point of no return, and I would never again have the Mall all to myself.

As we descended, the brute Lex awoke and saw us. He was on his feet and standing facing us through the grille in moments. His companions stirred.

"You've got a choice," Amber told him. "Either we turf you back out onto the streets to face the Locos, or you agree to abide by our rules and do a fair share of the work, and we let you in."

Lex sneered. "No way."

"Jack, let them out on the streets," Amber ordered immediately, not moving her gaze from Lex's face.

Jack moved to do so, but the girl with the pink and blue hair moved up to the grille.

"Wait," she said, and Jack paused. "I want to stay. Lex, please."

Just then there was a thump and a crash from the direction of the sewers.

"What was that?" Salene asked, panicked.

"Probably the Locos," Lex said, "On their way in now. Let us in and we might help you. Maybe."

Amber ignored him. "Faye, where's the sewer entrance?" she asked. Without replying I led the way, beckoning; she and Dal fell in behind me, while Salene and Jack stayed to watch the prisoners.

The short distance to the sewer door seemed to take an age to cover, though we ran. When we got there we heard another noise, leaving us in no doubt that someone was down there.

"Could it be one of the kittens?" Amber asked.

I shook my head. "They can't get in there, I made sure of that. Besides, they all came when I dished out their food earlier."

Amber took a deep breath. "We should go down and look," she said, and started pulling apart the meagre barrier Jack and I had constructed weeks before. It didn't take long.

Dal had a torch, for some reason, and flicked the switch to light the narrow walkway. We crept along slowly, alert and on edge. Following behind Amber, I stuffed my hands in my pockets to hide that they were shaking, and tried to convince myself that I was just nervous, and a lot had changed over the past 24 hours, and anyway it was cold down here so of course I was shivering.

We halted when we heard another thump, some footsteps, a small splash.

"There's definitely someone down here," Amber whispered. We backed up and returned to the door.

"I don't like this," I informed them.

"Let's get Lex and his friend to go and look," Dal suggested. "If whoever is down there turns out to be a threat, they can definitely handle themselves."

Amber nodded, and led us back to the open centre of the Mall beyond which Lex and his companions were. As we got there, Jack was climbing the stairs.

"Jack?" Amber said. "What's going on?"

"We thought you weren't coming back," Salene said.

"I was just saying," Lex said, "That if there are a load of Locos down there, you're gonna need me and Ryan to check it out. We can handle ourselves."

Amber raised an eyebrow. "You agree to abide by our rules?"

"Maybe."

"Jack, open the far gate, toss them out," Amber ordered. As Jack moved to do so, she continued. "Maybe isn't good enough."

"Lex, please," the girl with him pleaded.

Lex sighed. "Fine. We'll go by your rules. Whatever, just let us out."

Amber stared at him a moment, sighed and nodded.

"Jack," she said, and Jack hurried up the steps again to let Lex, Ryan and the girl out, this time into the Mall.

Lex stared at Amber a few moments before running past in the direction of the sewers. Ryan paused a moment to hand a small brown teddy bear to Amber.

"Thanks. She missed it," Amber replied, and Ryan hurried to catch up with Lex.

"It's Zandra, isn't it?" Salene said. She must have introduced herself while I wasn't there.

"Yeah," the girl replied.

"I'm Salene. Are you hungry? We've got some breakfast upstairs."

"Thanks, yeah."

That left me with Amber, Dal and Jack. We followed in the direction Lex and Ryan had gone. As we watched them descend into the sewers, we each found something to use as a weapon – the hockey stick and cricket bat Jack and I had used before were still here. Amber grabbed a broken table and tore off a leg to use as a club while Dal retrieved a piece of bent pipe from under one of the old market stands.

For half an hour or more we stood guard, waiting in silence for Lex and Ryan to return. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. Dal figetted. Jack coughed, then apologised quietly. And we waited.

There was a thump from below.

"Lex? Is that you?" Amber called down. There was no reply.

"We should go and look," Dal suggested. Part of me wished he hadn't said it, but my curiosity overrode my fear. I nodded, and led the way into the sewer.

Someone stepped out in front of me and I flinched, nearly hit him, and as Dal shone his torch in the newcomer's face I stopped myself.

"Bray!" I said, surprised. "How? What?" I couldn't construct a proper question, but he looked as surprised as I was to see me there. When he said nothing I explained to the others, "It's okay guys. I know Bray from school." I turned back to him. "What's been going on? Are you okay? What tribe are you with?"

"I'm fine," he said. "And I'm not with any tribe. I've been living in a town outside the city for a while. Can I come in?"

I nodded, and we made our way out of the sewer back into the Mall. As we walked questions formed in my mind faster than I could ask them.

"What have you been doing since the virus? How did you manage to survive? Have you seen anyone else from school? What are you doing back in the city? Have you had any contact with Martin?" When I asked this my voice dropped; discussing Martin was a serious business, especially since I guessed Bray wasn't interested in announcing to strangers that his brother was that bastard in the police car terrorising the city.

Bray seemed to latch onto only two of my questions, and it didn't include the one I most wanted to know the answer to, but when I gave him the chance to answer it was just as interesting.

"I hooked up with Trudy," he said, his face serious. "She's pregnant. We came into the city to find somewhere safe so she can have the baby."

"Oh." I said. I'd not been expecting it. I'd not expected anything like it. "Nine months pregnant?" I whispered.

"Almost exactly. It could come any day now."

"And Martin?" I mouthed the last word.

Bray nodded gravely.

So. In the confusion of the virus, Trudy and Martin found consolation in each other. Okay, so they had been dating for a few weeks before the virus, but Martin had changed a lot. Now such a thing seemed impossible. Given the circumstances, it was probably better to let everyone believe that Bray was the child's father, not it's uncle.

Amber interrupted. "Your friend is pregnant? Is she somewhere safe?"

Bray nodded. "Yes, but I don't like leaving her alone for long. And she's hungry too, we ran out of food yesterday."

Knowing Bray, that meant he hadn't eaten for days; he would have let Trudy have everything.

"Let's get you some food and go and find Trudy, then," I said. I didn't know Trudy as well as I knew Bray, she'd been in the year below at school, but I'd said hi to her a few times and she had won a prize in History one time.


	7. Trudy

We were back in the sewers within fifteen minutes. Bray was still scooping up the last beans in a tin with a fork, and we both had a bag containing a few tins and some bottles of water for Trudy. In Bray's pack there was also a folded blanket; in mine was a clean towel, just in case she was already in labour by the time we reached her. Dal joined us weilding the broken pipe in case we came across any trouble.

Bray led the way through the sewers to the entrance he'd come in by, a manhole that opened out at the back of a building near the train yard; I'd not realised how far we'd walked underground.

The long grass was still damp with dew. I remained alert as we tramped across it, then crossed a narrow footbridge and scooted around the trainyard. Jack had told me it was Demon Dog territory but the Locos wanted it. Thankfully, it wasn't long before we reached a tunnel that went into the hill. Out of sight, we moved more quickly, able to jog now that there wasn't a threat of being overheard.

The tunnel wasn't long. Soon we approached the other end and there, partly hidden by the overhanging branches of some sort of fern, was Trudy. Her face lit up when she saw us.

"Bray! You found somewhere?"

"Yes. Do you remember Faye from school? And this is Dal. They live in the Mall. It's safe there."

Trudy smiled. We helped her stand up and made our slow way back to the Mall. Lex and Ryan arrived back at the manhole into the sewers just as we did.

"What's going on?" Lex demanded to know.

"There weren't any Locos in the sewer," I said. "Just Bray. He's a friend."

"Yeah? It doesn't seem very friendly spying on us all day."

"And it doesn't seem friendly trying to steal our food and threaten us, Lex," I said pointedly. "I know Bray from before the virus. I trust him. Trudy too, who in case you hadn't noticed is pregnant, so let's get her inside so she can eat and rest."

"What? We don't want a screaming baby around the Mall."

"I bet it's a girl," Ryan said quietly, a simple smile on his face. He held out his hand to help Trudy balance as she descended the ladder into the sewer.

"Lex, you are hardly in a position to decide who or what we want in the Mall. You've only been here since yesterday afternoon, and you've spent most of that time trapped in the cage. I reckon I'm the one who should be making decisions like that, I've been here longest. So shut up."

He glowered at me but thankfully did as I suggested. I followed Trudy down the ladder.

A lot happened in that first week. The baby was born, as Ryan had guessed, a girl. The kittens grew to like Bob, but Snowflake stayed well clear of the labrador. Cloe found a calf – goodness knows where – then went missing to turn up a day later with an odd spiritual girl by the name of Taisan. Trudy fell ill and Dal braved the overrun streets to get medicine for her from his father's surgery. Amber wrote a chores rota which was largely adhered to, with a little nagging. Bray vanished for a while to return with nappies and power milk.

For a while I missed the quietness I'd become so used to, but I was happy, even when people argued. Slowly, we became a tribe. Taisan insisted on a ceremony, at which Lex suggested a tribe name – Mallrats. It stuck; and so after nine months living in the Mall, most of that alone, I became part of something, a tribe. We weren't perfect, far from it, but it worked in a way.


	8. An unexpected guest

It really began when someone snuck into the Mall late at night through the sewers, and I was awake, just about, and saw him. So I took a cricket bat and bashed him round the head, checked I'd not killed him, and dragged him to the cage in the old cleaning store room near my room. It might have been different if it had been a few nights later, but I was still not used to sharing the Mall with the others, and didn't wake them to tell them about the intruder. Besides, he was unconscious and locked up, and I was tired. I left it and went to bed.

I returned early the next morning. No-one else was up. It was no tricky task to make my way down to where I'd put the prisoner. Two locked doors, combination padlocks holding them shut, and the cage.

He'd come round by the time I got there. I could hear him from the corridor between the two doors, banging on the metal mesh of the cage walls. He shouted threats as I stood there and listened, but down here no-one would hear him. None of them knew there were even rooms down here – but when you've been in a place for as long as I'd been in the Mall, and alone for more than half of that, you learn your way around the place.

I entered what had once been a secure storage room. The cage in which the Loco now stood, staring at me, had once been where the cleaning chemicals had been stored. Now, with better light filtering through the high-up reinforced double glazed windows I could better see which Loco had been sneaking into the Mall in the dead of night.

Zoot.

Bray's brother Martin.

I could just about remember him from school. I never paid much attention to those in the lower years, but Martin was Bray's brother and everyone had known about how Trudy had gone out with Martin after Bray left her for Ebony, who I'd never much liked. And then of course there were the rumours, in the middle of the virus crisis before the evacuation began, that he'd gone from the normal, occasional bully-victim, average teenager to Zoot with his cry of Power and Chaos which had soon reverberated around the school in whispered rumours. I found out later that Martin and Bray's parents had been among the first taken by the virus.

He didn't say a word as I entered, just stared at me, his gaze full of hostility. His tribal face paint deepened the look and made him almost frightening, barely recognisable as the hardworking kid he had once been.

I wondered if he recognised me. I'd never been one to stand out back then, and my own face paint – vertical blue stripes – and new hair style must have disguised me somewhat. In the face of that stare, though, I wasn't about to ask him such trivial questions.

"You came to see Trudy, right?" I knew I was. Bray must have brought him in to see her and the baby.

He didn't answer. I pressed on.

"She gave birth to a little girl a few days ago. Is that why you came?"

The look on his face when I'd mentioned the baby had been so full of shock that I guessed he hadn't even known she was pregnant. It didn't last long, though. He composed himself and resumed the hateful glare.

"Let me out," he ordered brusquely.

I shook my head. Zoot kicked the cage, but didn't say anything else. If I knew anything about Zoot, he wouldn't want to give me the pleasure of seeing him plead or beg. No; he was used to being on the other side of the equation, forcing his victims and followers alike to beg. I wondered momentarily if I'd be able to make him beg if I worked on him long enough, but I dismissed the idea almost immediately. That would make me as bad as the person he had become since the virus.

Then another idea struck me. The surprise tactic. It would knock him off guard, at least at first, and could possibly work. Against hatred, threats, anger, he would resist, fight back with the same. Such he was used to. But kindness, compassion, a friendly tone as if I were speaking to the school boy Martin and not the ruthless Loco leader Zoot – such a tactic could work, maybe even convince him to think more like Martin and less like Zoot. If it didn't work, and he got out, he'd be less likely to be fueled by thoughts of vengeance. It would be tricky to pull off, though: I'd have to remain calm, stay patient, maintain a smile and a positive attitude.

Thoughts of grandeur filled my head: if I, until recently a tribeless stray, could turn Zoot back into Martin imagine what else I could do. With that thought it became my mission, my goal. I grinned.

"Hungry?" I asked cheerfully. "There's a right feast to be had. Tinned beans, tinned tuna, even tinned sweetcorn. Jack still has a store of ketchup around somewhere, don't tell the others, and I might be able to get hold of some macaroni cheese. Of the tinned variety, of course. So what'll it be, Zooty-boy?"

He looked a little puzzled for a moment. "What the hell?"

"Come on, you must be hungry. Everyone needs to eat. What do you want?"

"Let me out and I'll see what there is," he growled sarcastically.

"No no, I can't let you do that. You've got waitress service here. Beans, tuna, sweetcorn or macaroni?"

"Stop laughing at me, bitch."

I raised an eyebrow and allowed myself a small smile. "Oh, I assure you, I'm not. Hurry up and choose, I can't stand around here all day. You'd never get fed if I did."

He watched me a moment, clearly trying to tell what I was up to. Again he kicked the cage. Then, slightly reluctantly, he replied. "Beans."

"An excellent choice, sir. And to drink? We have diet Coke, lemon Fanta, Lilt, blue and red Panda Pops and water."

His eyes flickered when I said Lilt, but he grunted "Water."

"Beans and water. Great choices." I dropped the enthusiastic and patronising waitress tone and said more softly, "I'll be back when I can." I resisted the urge to say "Don't go anywhere"; it was just too cheesy.


	9. Baked Beans

It was not difficult to fetch some supplies of food and water for Zoot. When the virus hit I raided all the supermarkets in the Mall and stored the food of different types in a variety of places, most of which I kept secret from Jack when he turned up a few months ago. Most of had been eaten by the time Amber and the others arrived, and much of the rest had joined the store for all of us, but there was an emergency supply of some hundred tins and twenty litres of water not far from where I'd put Zoot, in a part of the mall the others had yet to wander into. I fetched about thirty tins and eight litres of water, and stacked them in the corridor between the two doors from the main mall to Zoot's temporary home, then went up to the café to fetch some other things – a cup, a spoon, a straw. Everyone else was still asleep.

Zoot was sat with his back to the wall when I returned. I placed the bottle of water, tin of beans, cup, spoon and straw that I'd brought in on a shelf, then poured some water into the cup and added the straw. This I took over to the cage and poked the straw through the mesh. Zoot didn't move.

"Hey, don't you want any water?" I asked. He just watched me. "Not thirsty, huh? Well, I'll just leave it on the floor for now then." I put the cup down and arranged the straw so Zoot could drink despite the mesh.

"Let me out," he ordered.

"Can't do that. It was beans you wanted, right?"

I cracked open the tin and picked up the spoon, then stood by the cage again. Still Zoot refused to move.

"Not hungry either, huh? Well, I'll pop it down here next to the water. Might be a bit difficult using the spoon through the mesh, but I'm sure you can cope. I must be getting off now. I'm on breakfast duty up in the Mall. Can't keep everyone waiting."

I paused a few seconds to see if Zoot would react, but he did nothing but follow me with his eyes. I left.

It was evening before I had the chance to return. Amber had drawn up another chores rota and Bray had gone missing again, and with everything else I'd been kept busy. Zoot seemed to be asleep when I entered, though I marvelled that he'd managed any comfort of that hard tiled floor. The water was all drunk, but the beans were untouched.

As I refilled Zoot's water, I said softly, "Hey Zoot, wake up. Aren't you hungry? You've not touched your beans."

He didn't reply.

"Hey Zoot, come on, wake up. You can't sleep all day. And seriously, you've not eaten all day. You must be starving."

Still he didn't move or speak, or even mumble.

"Don't feel like beans huh? How about some tuna?"

Still nothing.

I wondered what the problem was. I doubted he was a light sleeper – being a leader of a tribe like the Locos couldn't be restful. To be a heavy sleeper in such a situation was to be in permanent danger. Therefore he was either unwell or pretending to be in the hope that I would open the cage. The best way to find out would be to do something unexpected.

Careful not to make a sound, I picked up the cup of water and removed the straw.

"Zoot?" I said with faked concern.

Then I threw the water on him. He flinched. His shoulders hunched a little. He seemed more curled up than before. But he didn't say a word or sit up angrily or anything.

Already I had had enough of the friendly tone. "Not working, Zoot. If you want to pretend to be ill or go on hunger strike, that's up to you. I'm not playing along with it and I'm not opening that cage door out of concern for you. Bray and Trudy don't have a clue you're down here. Neither do any of the others. I can live with letting you kill yourself. So stop messing around. If you want those beans then get up now and eat them. If not I'll eat them myself before they go nasty and I'll come back tomorrow to give you some more food. If you want it, that is."

I waited a few minutes, sighed, and grabbed the tin of beans. With the new rationing, food was short and I was hungry. But just as I had the first spoonful ready there was a low rumble from the cage and a I saw Zoot tense; it had been his stomach. He swore quietly then sat up.

"Right, whatever, just gimme the beans."

"What ever happened to your manners?" I asked. "Did they dissolve when Power and Chaos came along?"

"Just let me have the beans, I'm hungry."

"So am I, Zooty-boy. So just be nice and say the magic word, hmm?"

He gave me a sneering glare, but muttered "Please can I have the beans?"

"That's better." I stepped up to the cage as he rose to his feet to face me. Filling the spoon with beans, I passed it through the mesh.

"You think I'm gonna eat like that? Spoon fed like some stupid crying baby or an animal in a zoo? You've got to be kidding."

I shrugged. "Fine, suit yourself." I put the tin of beans back where they'd been before on the ground. "I'll just sit over here by the door until you're done, right?"

To give the guy credit, he did try, but each spoonful had less and less food on it. He wasn't even half way down the tin by the time he couldn't get any beans at all – the angle was too steep through the mesh. I let him continue trying for a few minutes longer, then sighed and got to my feet.

"Amusing as I find watching this, you're gonna starve if you can only eat half of what I give you. Now, given that you're Zoot I normally wouldn't mind that. You've caused a lot of people a lot of pain. I guess you're lucky I remember you from before, hey Martin?"

He looked up suddenly and studied my face. "I'm not Martin any more," he told me sharply.

"Oh, I can see that. But you're still Bray's little brother, and jerk though he can be at times, he's still my friend. So are you gonna let me feed you through the mesh or shall I leave you here to think about all the times you've been the one on this side of the cage and done whatever you could to hurt those inside?" I wasn't feeling so charitable any more. I'd never been one of those victims myself, but I'd heard about it from the other Mallrats, and I'd often watched him driving around in his police car chasing kids from the Mall roof.

When Zoot didn't say anything, I spoke instead.

"I've had enough of this."

I left.


	10. Sunshine

I couldn't sleep after that. I was still angry, as much with myself for losing control as I was at Zoot. I returned to the former cleaning storeroom less than an hour after I'd left.

Zoot was still trying to eat the beans, unsuccessfully. He glared at me as I entered, but didn't stop. I went over and took the tin and the spoon from him, then stood facing him. Feeling a little awkward, I held a spoonful of beans through the mesh for him to eat. Without protest he did, but there was suspicion in his eyes.

"Listen, Zoot, I shouldn't have lost my temper like that. I was... There's no excuse. I'm sorry."

I waited for him to reply.

"What's this about? What are you doing?"

"Treating you like a human."

He took the spoon from me to eat the beans on it, then passed the spoon back through the mesh.

"Yeah. Sure."

"Where does it all come from, Zoot? The anger, the hatred. Why did you become like that when Bray turned out the opposite? It can't just be because of your parents."

"Power and Chaos is the only way."

"Right. It's been like that for nine months, huh? Only because of you, though. Maybe if someone else, like Amber or Bray, had come out on top it'd be Peace and Co-operation instead. How many of the Locos are people from school who saw you snap?"

He didn't answer, but then I hadn't expected him to.

"This world has crumbled, Zoot. It began with the virus, and continued with Power and Chaos. We've returned to the Dark Ages, when what we needed was to get the farms running again, the water supply working, the electricity back on, and everyone working together so that there is a future for the little ones to grow up into. A future for Trudy's baby. Your daughter."

"How do you know she's mine?" Zoot sneered.

"You and Trudy were together nine months ago, right? Besides, I asked her earlier today. That little girl is yours."

"I want to see her."

I nodded. "I'll speak to her. You thirsty?"

I spoke to Trudy the next morning. She was up getting some water in the café when I got there. I said good morning.

"You're up early today," she observed, swaying from side to side with the baby on her hip.

"Not been sleeping well," I told her as I fetched some water for myself. "Actually, I'm glad I've got the chance to speak to you. There's something you should see. Before everyone else wakes up would be best."

"What is it?" she asked, frowning curiously.

I led her down to the door to where Zoot was, explaining quietly as we walked.

"This has to be kept a secret from everyone else. We'd both be in trouble if Amber or Lex found out. Bray would too, though he has no idea. So I need you to promise two things." I stopped outside the padlocked door and faced her.

Trudy hesitated before answering. "Go on."

"That you'll keep the secret."

She nodded.

"And that you won't get angry at me."

She smiled uncertainly. "Why would I get angry with you?"

"Do you promise?"

"Of course. Now what is it?"

I took a breath and looked away from her. "Martin," I whispered.

From the corner of my eye I saw her jaw drop. She hoisted the baby a little higher on her hip.

"Martin?"

I nodded without looking directly at her.

"_Zoot_? But... how?"

"Bray brought him in the other night, but in the darkness I could only tell he was a Loco, so, well, I ambushed him and put him in here."

"I need to see him," Trudy insisted.

I met her eyes again. "I know. He asked to see you. Wait here."

It didn't take long to put the combination into the padlock and remove the chain holding the door shut. I slipped through, quickly moved the stacked food into a smaller cleaning supplies room, then unlocked the second door into Zoot's room. He was asleep. I crouched down near his head and poked his shoulder through the mesh.

"Hey Zoot, wake up. Trudy's here to see you." I poked harder. "Zoot, come on, wake up. You wanted to talk to Trudy, right? So get up."

At last he stirred and groaned. His hand snapped out in an arc and crashed against the mesh. He swore, and finally came awake properly. He was on his feet within mere seconds, and swayed a moment before focusing his eyes on me.

"Trudy's here?" he asked more sharply than I'd expected from someone so recently awakened.

"Yes. I'll bring her in."

"Wait," he suddenly whispered at I turned towards the door. I turned back. "Does she have the baby with her?" he asked. I nodded, but when he said nothing more I went out to bring Trudy within.

She seemed a little nervous. Her steps were small and hesitant as she crossed from one door to the other, and she paused for less than a second before going through the second door. There was concern on her face which turned to relief when she saw him – had she believed him badly injured from my ambush, I wondered, then pushed it from my mind. The baby she held close to her, wrapped in blankets so that Zoot could not see so much as a tiny finger of his daughter.

"Trude. Babe," Zoot said quietly.

"Zoot," Trudy whispered back. She shifted slightly turning and revealing the baby's face to him.

Instantly Zoot's face softened as he looked at the baby. I slipped away through the door and sat myself in the corridor to give them time to themselves. I could hear the murmur of their voices through the door, but not their words. It didn't matter. This was a private moment for them both, and I had neither the right nor the wish to eavesdrop on them. I sat for several minutes, thinking of nothing, then rose to find a tin of food for Zoot from the store cupboard. On the other side of the door they continued to speak quietly. Either they did not want me to hear them or their words were without anger or malice. I suspected a mixture of both.

They'd been speaking alone for perhaps ten minutes when Trudy pushed the door open to find me.

"Can you open the cage?" she asked. "He wants to hold her."

I nodded, and followed her back into the old storage room, using chain and padlock to secure the door behind me. Neither said anything as I did this, but waited patiently for me to unlock the door to the cage. Zoot stepped out and approached Trudy, who handed him the baby. He held her awkwardly, uncertainly, and stared down into her face. I thought I saw tears brimming in his eyes, but looked away, embarrassed.

"Hello," he whispered to his daughter, then without looking up addressed Trudy. "Does she have a name?"

Trudy shook her head. "Not yet. Do you- I mean, would you like to name her?"

Zoot didn't say anything for nearly a minute.

"Sunshine," he said at last, then looked up at Trudy. "What do you think of Sunshine?"

Trudy smiled. "I like it. It's perfect." The two of them bent over their daughter. "Hello little Sunshine." Her fingers brushed Sunshine's cheek. They stood like that for a moment, then Trudy took the baby back and turned to me.

"Thank you," she said to me softly, and smiled.


	11. Unwanted visitor

In the days that followed Trudy accompanied me every time I went to give Zoot food and water, and instead of feeding him through the bars I gave him the opened tins when I let him out to hold the baby. I also brought down bedding, some books, and a deck of cards.

In that time much happened, but Zoot knew little of it. Much of it was trivial, and this we told him, but neither of us mentioned Ebony's search for him. Instead we told him of Lex and Zandra's approaching wedding, Jack and Del's attempts at improving the water filter system and their security system in the sewers. We talked of Bray and Salene's building romance, and speculated how long it would last. Trudy's guess was far longer than mine or Zoot's, her estimation in months while ours were in weeks. We talked of Bray's long disappearances, his quests to find formula milk and nappies, and Zoot became quiet at these times.

As the wedding drew nearer, excitement grew in the Mall, and even Zoot's spirits lifted, though he was unable to attend and did not know the happy couple. I thought perhaps the revelation of Sunshine into his life shook him, at least in part, from the hate-filled state of mind he'd been engulfed in since the first cry of "Power and Chaos" had echoed around the school all those months before. With each day that passed he seemed less resentful and angry, more hopeful, and more loving towards the baby he'd never known was coming.

He did not even seem to mind his imprisonment as much any more, though I knew such could be part of a plan to escape. Four days after I'd captured him, he asked for hot water and washed the Loco face paint from his face. In an instant he looked like Martin again, and the anger at his parents' deaths and the subsequent events seemed diminished, turned to acceptance of what was.

He spoke to me about it once, when Trudy had been unable to come down one morning as she'd only just managed to get Sunshine to sleep. He told me how much he missed them, how he wished the virus had never come, but that what had happened had happened and was in the past, unchangeable forever. I smiled sadly at his words, remembering my own grief as my parents and brother and aunts and uncle died. In return, I told him of how I'd come to the Mall alone after my parents had died. It had been the last day the Mall was open for business, the day before the looting had started. I kept the Mall locked up, though many had tried to come in during those days as I cried and hid from them.

I didn't tell him about the BB guns hidden away around the Mall. I'd found them in the toy shop my second day in the Mall, and selected those that looked most realistic. The others I hid all together, in case someone entered, saw them and realised the guns I claimed real were no more than toys.

The wedding was the next day. Trudy and I were with Zoot when the alarm sounded, the wolf-howls audible through a drainage pipe in one corner of the room. After locking Zoot back in the cage, we rushed out to see what was wrong. It was panic in the Mall as Lex led Ryan, Jack and Del into the sewers while the girls built a barricade at the top of the stairs. I overheard Amber snap at Taisan for not helping as I followed Trudy up the stairs. At that moment the alarm cut off, and a moment later Lex emerged with Bob; the dog had been the cause of our panic. I returned to let Zoot know that everything was okay, then joined the others in the wedding preparations.

Zandra looked amazing as she descended the stairs, with Cloe and Patsy as bridesmaids behind her. I was looking after Bob for them. Bray turned up just in time for the ceremony to start; he'd been missing all day and didn't know what was going on.

But then someone else, far less welcome, arrived in the Mall.

Ebony.

"Where is Zoot?" she demanded as everyone turned to gape at her.

No-one answered. None knew but Trudy and me. Instead Lex, Ryan and Bray charged at her as Bob barked under my hand. Ebony fled back into the sewers, and the three men followed her down there. On the stairs, Zandra started crying while Amber and Salene herded the younger children up to the cafe. Jack and Dal followed Lex and the others after a moment's hesitation. Beside me, Trudy began to panic. I released Bob's straining lead to turn to her and comfort her.

"What if she saw the baby?" she whispered. "She'd know Sunshine is Zoot's. What if she comes back with the Locos and tries to kill Sunshine?"

"Shh, don't worry, she was only there for an instant, she might not have even seen Sunshine. And besides, Bray and Lex and Ryan have probably caught her already. She won't be able to get the Locos and they won't be able to get in here – there's Jack's alarms and there'll be more security measures after this anyway, so it's nothing to worry about. This place is defensible. Sunshine will be fine. Come on upstairs with me, we can help Amber build the tables up to block the stairs."

I led her, shaking, up the stairs, speaking soothing words all the time and not believing any of them. Ebony had had the advantage of a headstart over the men, plus the element of surprise, and we didn't know whether there were any Locos in the sewers or waiting outside. While we had the benefit of home territory and a defensible position, the Locos' numbers were greater than ours even including the children. Worse, once any attackers emerged from the sewers into the Mall, they'd have free run of the ground floor, leaving us on the first floor.

Dal came back into the Mall as I sat Trudy down and turned my attention to helping Amber with the barricade.

"She's left the sewers," he shouted up to us. "There didn't seem to be any more of them."

Then he returned to the sewer.

We waited another twenty minutes. Zandra was in a bad state, upset over the distrupted wedding and worried about Lex. While Taisan calmed her down and Salene kept the children quiet I comforted Trudy and Amber kept watch. Eventually the others returned, empty-handed, to report that Ebony had escaped and that there were Locos around. Jack and Dal set the alarm back up then helped the rest of us build a fresh barricade around the sewer doors.

The panic finally over, Amber and Salene made supper.

At my suggestion, we didn't tell Zoot about Ebony's surprise visit, just as we'd never told him of the search she led for him or the rumours arising in the city of his death. He didn't need to know, and such knowledge might reawaken thoughts of Power and Chaos which had seemed to vanish at the sight and subsequent naming of Sunshine.

Instead of the truth, we told him that the wedding had been cancelled as a result of a problem with Zandra's dress. I suspect he knew we were lying, but he didn't press the matter so I couldn't be certain. He'd never been much interested in the wedding in the first place; instead he and Trudy talked about and to Sunshine. Feeling awkward about intruding, I didn't add much.


	12. The Locos

It was two days after the aborted wedding that the alarms sounded late at night. Everyone rushed to the sewer entrance, to discover Locos attacking it. The barricade was torn down in moments, before we'd even got ourselves together. As we'd planned, though, the children ran up the stairs to help Amber and Salene with building a second barricade there, while Trudy put Sunshine to bed before she too helped. The men grabbed weapons and defended the widening breach near the sewer, but on my way back from seeing Zoot I was trapped between him and the invaders; I couldn't reach the stairs and had no weapon to hand to aid.

Then I heard what the Locos were saying.

"We want Zoot! Release our leader!"

They pushed our defenders back to the base of the stairs in moments as I watched. I waited no longer. I found one of my stashed BB guns and stuffed it down the back of my trousers before returning to Zoot. I didn't bother relocking the padlocks.

"Zoot, we have a problem," I told him as I entered. He abandonned his card game and tin of sweetcorn and jumped to his feet.

"What? Is it Sunshine?"

"No, she's fine. It's the Locos. They're here for you, though I doubt they know for certain you're here, I think they just want an excuse to attack us," I told him hurriedly. "You've got a choice. Stay here or come out and face them. I don't care if you fight for us or go back to them, that's your decision, just as long as they leave us be."

The old sneer returned to his face, and for a moment I was scared.

"Open the cage," he ordered, and I did so immediately.

I followed him out through the two doors and left towards the main part of the Mall. We could aready hear the shouts of the Locos before we turned the next corner.

"Here I am," Zoot shouted as he rounded the corner. I followed, keeping a few feet behind and to his left. "You shout for me. Here I am."

Looking around the Mall, I saw that Lex, Bray and Dal were injured; Ryan and Jack protected their retreat up the stairs as Amber made a gap in the barricade for them to come through. Before Zoot's shout, the Locos had been mustering around the base of the stairs, ready to make their attack on the first floor. When he emerged they turned towards him, and many were surprised to see him. I could not see Ebony.

"Get him!" someone shouted from the centre of the mob.

Two Locos obeyed, then a third. They ran at him while the others held back. Zoot ducked the first's attack, sweeping his leg out to catch the Loco behind the knee and toppling him to the ground. Before he'd stopped skidding the second was reeling from Zoot's punch; the third he charged with a cry and knocked to the ground.

Zoot marched forward, and the Locos parted before him until he stood face to face with the one who had shouted.

"You betray me after so short an absence, Spike?" he sneered. He punched the Loco in the stomach then pushed him to the ground. "Get out of here," he told the tribe he had used to lead. "All of you. Leave. Do not return, or you will have me to contend with."

I still do not know why they did not attack him then. Perhaps some were loyal to him; perhaps others were too scared to act until someone else had. They did not obey, but stood still and silent until one of their number shouted a question.

"Why should we listen to you?"

He hesitated a second too long; more questions, demands and insults were thrown at him. The din was worse than it had been during their attack. He seemed to have lost control over them. It was time for the BB gun to come out.

"Hey, shut up!" I shouted as loudly as I could, pointing my weapon at the mob in an immitation of television police officers and action heroes everywhere. The hush spread out. The Locos on the ground who had attacked Zoot at Spike's order stayed there.

"Get out of the Mall," I ordered them. "Now."

"That's not a real gun or you'd have fired by now," someone said.

"I've got nine bullets in this pistol," I retorted. "I'm not wasting any of them when there's twenty of you. Now get out before I start firing."

For a moment I thought I'd fail. Those nearest me stared at me and did not move, but one Loco from further back darted towards the entrance to the sewer and was followed by two more, and then a fourth. The tablaeux held a second longer. I sneered; four more fled and the rest followed, the felled three scrabbling on the smooth floor to reach their escape route before my patience was gone. Spike, bent over and clutching at his belly, was the last.

I crossed to stand beside Zoot, lowering the toy gun.

"Thanks," he muttered.

"Don't mention it."

"What the hell just happened?" Lex called down from the barricade. "What's he doing here?" He made it clear that Zoot was not welcome.

I hadn't thought this far ahead, only as far as getting the Locos to leave. I took my time turning around.

"I just saved our lives," I returned, and started climbing the stairs, beckoning Zoot behind me.

"You're not bringing that piece of filth up here," Lex asserted.

"Shut it, Lex," Amber said. "Ryan, Jack, help me barricade the sewer entrance more securely." She turned to me. "And in the meantime, you can explain to us all what Zoot is doing in the Mall and why you've got a gun."

I started with the easy one. "It's just a BB gun. I found it in the toy shop ages ago," I replied, going ahead of her down the stairs. "As for Zoot..." I hesitated.

"I brought him here. He's my brother," Bray announced from the stairs. The pain from the injury he'd sustaind came through in his voice.

"He's what?" Lex put in. "You let him in here? Zoot? The Loco leader? Are you crazy?" Limping slightly, he made his way down the stairs to stand face to face with Zoot. They were of a like height. Lex stuck his chin out and put a threatening expression on his face; Zoot made his blank.

Amber stepped in. "Drop it Lex. Come and help with the barricade and stop causing trouble."

Reluctantly obeying, Lex backed away from Zoot. Before he turned to help, though, he shook his finger at the former Loco as if to warm him not to step wrong.

"I saw Bray bring him in late at night a few days ago," I continued. "I didn't realise straight away who he was; I just knocked him out and locked him up."

"And you didn't think maybe the rest of would like to know we've got _him_ for a prisoner in the Mall?" Amber demanded, pausing a moment in the building of the defenses.

"I, I didn't want to worry anyone, and I needed time to think about the situation."

"_What_ situation?" she and Lex asked in unison.

I glanced at Zoot. He nodded almost imperceptably. On the balcony above, Trudy nodded her consent too.

"The situation with Trudy and Sunshine. He's the father."

There was a stunned silence in the Mall, broken by the clatter of dropped metal.

"Sorry," Jack muttered.

"I knew we shouldn't have let them stay," Lex announced. "All three of them. Didn't I say it'd cause nothing but trouble having a brat here?"

"You take that back," Zoot snarled at him, his first words since the Locos' departure.

Before anyone else could move Zoot charged at Lex and swung a punch. Lex blocked it hasily with his forearm and sent one back in return.

"Hey, hey," Amber shouted, but I got there first and moved between them. Zoot's fist landed, hard, on my shoulder as I blocked his view of Lex.

"Stop!" I shouted, and was dimly aware that those hurrying down the stairs towards us halted as silence fell in the Mall. Zoot backed away a step, his fists still balled, glaring at Lex as hatefully as Lex stared back at him. Amber siezed Lex's arms, holding him back. At last I could stop looking from one to the other and finally concentrate.

"Zoot, let it drop, it's not important," I muttered to him so no-one else could hear. "Lex talks out of his arse anyway." He opened his mouth to preotest but I held up a hand and continued more loudly before he could say a word. "What's important is what you intend to do now."

He didn't pause to think. "I'm staying with Sunshine and Trudy."

"You can all get out then, you ain't staying here."

"Lex," Amber said warningly, achieving nothing.

"I mean it. He goes or I do, and Ryan and Zandra with me."

It was not a feeble threat. Though a complete moron Lex had proven his value as a fighter, as had Ryan, only minutes earlier. For them to leave would be a disaster for the Mallrats; but at the same time I knew that if Zoot were to leave Trudy and Bray would go with him, and so would I. The arguments and doubts that would surround either course of action could lead to disintegration for the tribe, so early in our forming.

Amber worked out the same as I had, only faster.

"It doesn't need to come to that," she reassured us. "We all need to think carefully about this, about what's best for the tribe. I suggest we finish this barricade and then discuss the options open to us. In the meantime" -she turned to me- "Zoot needs to be locked up again."

"What? No!" Trudy shouted as she hurried down the last few steps and stood beside me, between Zoot and Amber. "You can't say that, he helped us against the Locos," she reminded Amber, then turned to me. "Tell them!" Though she tried to keep it from her face, I could hear the hint of desperation in her voice.

I wanted to, but Amber was right. "It won't be for long," I explained softly, as much to Zoot as to Trudy. "Only for a few hours, for as long as it takes to discuss the matter."

Amazingly, Zoot consented to be led back to the cage and, once more, be imprisoned within it. Trudy argued, but finding no support soon fell silent, sending resentful stares to Lex and Amber.


	13. Answering in anger

The sewer defernses soon satisfactorily complete, we converged on the cafe and Amber took on the role of chairman of the meeting.

"We need to decide what to do with Zoot," she began.

"Well isn't it obvious?" Patsy interrupted. "We don't want _him_ around here."

Amber glared at her but continued as if the girl hadn't spoken.

"So let's hear some suggestions. One at a time."

"Kill him," Lex said instantly. "He's a disease."

"No!" Trudy objected.

"What?" Lex asked. "If we throw him out he'll just lead those Locos back in here and take the Mall. If we leave him locked up down there in Faye's secret prison he'll just eat all our food. And there's no way he's staying here."

"Oh come off it Lex," I replied. "You saw what went on down there. If we chuck him out he's more likely to be lynched by the Locos than lead them."

"Good! They can get rid of him for us!"

"Don't be stupid. Zoot and the BB guns are all that's stopping them from coming right back in here."

"Seems more like the BB guns than him to me."

"And how long do you think it'll take them to realise I was bluffing? Get real, Lex. We need him to keep them afraid, and if they do come back we'll need him even more. Everyone knows he can't be bested in a fight. You saw him take out those three Locos."

"Yeah? Well I took out a few of them myself while you were messing around with toy guns. And like I've already said, if he stays, I go."

"Hey," Amber interrupted. "I believe I said one at a time, and let's stick to suggestions please. Or is that too hard for you two to manage?"

I shut up; Lex tried to protest but Amber silenced him.

"Thank you. Now. The options we have so far are as follows. We can let Zoot stay here with Trudy and Sunshine. We can leave him locked up and discuss this again in a week. We can send him away or we can, as Lex was so swift to suggest, kill him. Does anyone else have any other suggestions?"

Taisan shook her head. No-one said anything. I fidgetted with my sleeve, tense. Zoot had nearly been Martin again before the Locos came and he had needed to fight as Zoot and negociate as Zoot.

"Good. So what are the benefits of letting him stay?"

"You're actually considering that?" Lex asked, astounded.

"Sit down, Lex. We'll hear the benefits and failings of every suggestion before making a decision."

Once Lex had resumed him seat, I repeated the practical benefits of Zoot staying, before Trudy and Bray between them, slightly frantically on Trudy's part, tried to explain what Martin used to be like before he was Zoot, adding that he wouldn't hurt anyone.

"He can be Martin again," I chipped in at the end. "Just with Zoot's fighting ability."

Amber nodded. "Anything more to add?" We shook our heads. "Let's move on to the faults of this course of action then."

Lex took up this part, as we'd all expected. "He's a psycho, and he's dangerous. This whole thing could be a plan to infiltrate the Mall so he and his loony friends can come and take over. This isn't just some regular Loco wanting out. This is their leader. The guy who rides around in a police car chasing people. The guy who invented Power and Chaos. And what if the Demon Dogs or the Roosters found out he was here? They'd be banging down the doors to get at him and waste him, and then how safe would the rest of us be, huh? What we need to do is get rid of him. Either we waste him and throw him out, or we thrown him out and let the Demon Dogs waste him. That way he's no danger to us any more."

"Oh get over yourself, Lex," Bray interjected.

"He's not staying here," Ryan said.

Salene spoke up. "What about the little ones?"

"Yeah," Cloe added. "I don't want him near me. He's crazy."

"What if he'd got out and attacked us?" Zandra asked in that annoying, fluttery was she does.

"How long has he been here, anyway? A week? Two? How did he eat all that time?" Dal asked.

I should have expected the question. Of course someone would wonder how I fed him.

"I have an emergency stash."

"Why did you keep it back?" Amber demanded.

"Well what if someone got in and stole all our food? With the emergency stash, there's a backup."

"You didn't think it might be nice to tell us there was other food, though?"

I shrugged. "There wouldn't be any food at all here if it weren't for me. The looters would have taken the lot," I reminded them.

"That's not the point, Faye. The point is you kept food from us, and fed that food to a prisoner you were keeping secret from us too. We're meant to be a tribe here, but you seem to think we're just some vague friends crashing in your home for a short while."

Angered, I replied in a way which probably didn't help my case. "Well you are! I've been here since the virus and you just turn up one day out of the blue and sleep in my beds and eat all the food I've been carefully looking after for months and suddenly we're a tribe and I seem to have no say in the matter. I played along because I thought it was for the best, but all the time I felt you were just intruders in my home and maybe one day you'd leave me to my peace and quiet. Well, whatever. When you idiots chuck Zoot out because you can't see how he can help us, I'm going with him."

I'd finished, but I was out of breath after the outburst. Sunshine broke the shocked silence by crying. I'd woken her up. I stood a moment longer, but then I couldn't stand their stares. I turned away and stormed out of the cafe and down to the cage where Zoot was locked up. I fumbled with the chain to secure the door once inside, then gave up and growled in frustration, throwing the chain and padlock to the concrete floor.

"I take it there's a problem. They want me out?" Zoot asked. I didn't turn to look at him.

"No. Yes. I don't know. They've not made a decision yet. I think I made it for them."

Now I turned. "We need to sort out those clothes. Or something. The moment we get outside anyone nearby will notice you."

"Let them. I can take them."

"Two or three maybe. Not all of the Demon Dogs."

He shrugged. I doubt he cared. Even so, he pulled apart what he'd been using as a pillow to reveal the cloak he'd arrived in the Mall wearing. I'd forgotten about it until then. He swung it around his shoulders and held his arms out wide.

"Happy?"

I nodded. It would do to conceal his too distinctive getup. That old police uniform was too obvious.

"I'll be right back."

I rushed out, ignoring the discarded chain, and went to my own room nearby. By the sound of it the others were still discussing the situation, and Trudy had got Sunshine to stop crying. I grabbed a couple of bags, a few spare t-shirts, a few trinkets and items which might be tradable. Then I returned to Zoot and unlocked the cage.

"Give me a hand, would you?" I askd as I began filling the bags with tins of food and bottles of water. Before long both bags were full and very heavy. I couldn't lift either.

"We'll have to take some out. We'll never get anywhere if we can't even carry these."

"You're coming with me?" Zoot seemed surprised.

"Of course. I was thinking. We can go and find a place that's safe and then come back for Trudy and Sunshine."

"Safe?" he asked scornfully. "There's nowhere safe."

"There must be."

"Nowhere."

"The docks?"

"Ha. Overrun with small tribes and traders. That place is about as safe as walking into Demon Dog territory."

"There has to be somewhere safe. Somewhere no-one would go. Government offices?"

"Full of crazies. The type of people Top Hat wouldn't even let into the Tribe Circus. Even the Locos don't go near those weirdos."

"The school?"

"Stray kids have set up there."

"The library?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. Where is it?"

"Sector four."

"Maybe."

The door opened and Trudy came in carrying Sunshine. She looked a little ashamed. Bray followed, his face severe, and behind him were Amber and Lex. I could tell from Lex's face that he was happy with the decision.

"Time for Zoot to leave," Amber said.

"Yeah. We figured."

I hoisted one bag onto my back. It was still heavy, but I could carry it now. There were about thirty tins and a few bottles of water on the floor that wouldn't fit, but everything else was split between the two bags.

Zoot grabbed the other bag and swung it onto his back before kissing Trudy on the cheek and his baby on the top of her head. He pushed between Amber and Bray and past Lex.

"We'll come back when we've found somewhere safe for Sunshine," I whispered to Trudy. "I promise."

"Be careful," she replied.

I followed Zoot out and went past hm to lead the way to the sewers. The barricade was being partially dismantled by Dal and Jack, and it was only a moment before we could pass. I led the way out in silence.

The sewers were dim as we moved through them. Water dripped from the ceiling into the water to our right. Somewhere a rat squeaked. We kept moving and soon found the ladder that led out. The cover was off, so we just climbed up and out. There was no-one out there. We replaced the cover and set off in across the long grass towards sector four.

In silence I passed the end of the tunnel that marked the furthest point I'd been from the Mall in nine months. Zoot didn't need to know, and probably didn't care anyway. I didn't look back.


	14. Banana milkshake

Within a few minutes we'd reached another part of the city, the old train depot. They were still there, many beginning to rust.

"Let's move quickly through here. It borders Demon Dog territory," Zoot said quietly.

"Why, you scared?"

"No," he retorted brusquely. "I just don't want to have to deal with the gits after what happened with Spike and the Locos earlier."

"Right."

"What did you just call us, boy?" someone asked from ahead, and we saw who as he stepped around the end of a train to block the way forward.

Others came about behind him, all of them wearing silver tribe paint or motorbike helmets painted silver. I glanced behind to see other Demon Dogs closing the path behind us. We were trapped.

Zoot dropped his bag to the ground and adopted a fighting stance. I didn't have a clue how to fight, but mimicked him anyway. They rushed us, and for a moment Zoot held his own, but they had me immediately. There was chaos and shouting, and then Zoot was lying flat on the ground and my arms hurt from being twisted behind me and the leader was giving out orders I couldn't hear over my pain. Someone put my bag back on my back and marched me away by my elbows, while a Demon Dog with a helmet with red and silver stripes grabbed the other bag and followed behind me.

Ahead someone pointed between two train cars and shouted "Locos!"

"After them!" the leader ordered, then turned towards me. "Jester, take the girl back to base."

A hand grabbed my shoulder from behind and the two gripping my elbows released me to join in the chase.

"Faye. It's Dev. I think it's time I left the Demon Dogs."

I turned to him as he released my shoulder. He pulled off the red and silver helmet to reveal his face. It _was_ Dev, Dev who I'd known since we'd met the first day of high school. The joker of the class who had chosen to hang out with me instead of the popular kids.

I hugged him.

"Woah, hey there. Don't go surprising me like that, hey? Come on, I know somewhere we can go that's safe."

"We have to go back," I told him.

"Oh yeah, your friend. Anyone I know?"

"Maybe," I said, and hurried back towards where we'd been ambushed.

Zoot was still lying there, not moving. I turned him onto his back. He was breathing.

"What the hell are you doing with _him_? That's Zoot!" Dev had seen Zoot's uniform under the cloak. "I heard he was dead."

"Well he's not, thankfully. You gonna help or not?"

"Help Zoot? Are you crazy? Have worms eaten your brain?"

"Then think of him as Bray's brother Martin. Or don't you remember the day he snapped at school?"

"He's still Zoot now! And in case you hadn't noticed, I'm wearing Demon Dog getup. He'll waste me the moment he wakes up." Dev seemed slightly panicked, but he'd always been one to get overdramatic in stressful situations. "Where have you been all this time, anyway? You're not with the Locos are you?"

"No, don't be stupid. I've been living in the Mall."

"All the time?"

"Yes."

"On your own?"

"Some of it. Now will you help me out here or not? I don't think we've got all that much time before the Demon Dogs realise you've not taken me back to base, do you?"

Reluctantly, he moved closer. "Fine. But you owe me a banana milkshake."

"A banana milkshake? Where am I gonna get milk, genius?"

"That's your problem," he replied hautily, but his smile betrayed him.

I rolled my eyes. "Help me lift him. Where's this safe place you know?"


	15. Lying low

Zoot woke as we were hauling him upright. He stumbled backwards then jumped up into a fighting stance.

"Hold it, Zoot."

"What's going on here?"

"Dev's quit the Demon Dogs. He knows somewhere safe nearby. So come on."

"I'm going nowhere with a Demon Dog."

"I'm none too happy about being near you either, Loco," Dev replied. "But Faye says you're Bray's brother."

"Can we just go, please?"

"Gimme the bag," Zoot ordered Dev.

"Sure thing, dead man. This thing is heavy."

"Who are you calling dead?" Zoot asked threateningly.

"You. Or hadn't you heard? Rumour is Spike wasted you and Ebony and took over."

Zoot turned to me. "You never said anything about all this. What's happened to Ebony?"

"Can we discuss this when we're somewhere safe please? I'm a little concerned at the prospect of the Demon Dogs returning."

"I don't trust this one," Zoot said.

"I do," I replied. "Come on."

At last we got moving, though Zoot kept his distance from Dev as we followed him through the train yard and into part of the city I didn't recognise. Dev pulled away a piece of grafitti'd plyboard to reveal a low window, long since broken. He jumped down. Before I threw my bag down after him, Zoot grabbed my arm.

"I still don't trust him. If there's a problem, get out straight away and meet under the bridge near the sewer to the Mall." I knew where he meant; we'd crossed that bridge earlier. I nodded.

"There won't be a problem," I said anyway, and jumped through the window into a small dim room.

The place looked like it used to be an office. The desk, office chair and filing cabinet remained, but there was rubbish everywhere. Empty tins and old rags and long out of date newspapers lay around, discarded without thought. In the middle of this all stood Dev, grinning, his arms held wide.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"It's a bit small, but it'll do until we find somewher better. Where does the door lead?"

"Dunno. It doesn't open. Bolted on the other side and locked, I think. Is the Loco coming down or what?"

I looked up out of the window at Zoot. "Pass the bags down and come on in. It looks fine."

Relucantly he did so.

"This place is a dump."

"It'll do for now."

"Huh."

"Hey, pull the ply board across the window, would you?" Dev said from the other side of the room. Zoot sullenly stood motionless; I reached past him to do as Dev asked.

"How long can we stay here?" I asked.

Dev shrugged. "As long as you want, but it's not big and I only have one blanket here still."

"How did you know about this place?" I asked, looking around the walls plastered with posters and photos from old magazines. I recognised several female celebrities looking glamourous. They were all dead now, from the virus.

"I lived here for a while, before I joined the Demon Dogs."

I nodded. "Well, we won't stay long. We have to find somewhere safe as soon as possible."

"This place is safe."

"It's too small," Zoot said quickly. "And too dirty. Thanks," he added, sneering.

"Right. Well. Whatever. Let's not stand on ceremony, shall we? Do sit down. Cup of tea? Biscuits?"

I grinned. There was Dev's old humour coming through, though it wasn't quite what it used to be. The virus and the following months ad taken their toll on him too.

"Why don't you come with us when we go?" I asked him. Beside me, Zoot scolwed. "You can't just live here on your own. Who will there be to tell your jokes to?"

"I think I've had enough of joking around. Did you hear what the Demon Dogs called me? Jester. They think I ran away from the Tribe Circus and went right to them. I didn't. I lived here first, as long as my food lasted."

I nodded.

"He's not coming with us," Zoot hissed in my ear, loud enough for Dev to hear.

"Suit yourself," Dev said, and turned around to dig through the rubbish for something or other.

"I do," Zoot replied hostilely. "I can."

"Yeah. I saw you in your police car. You know Spike goes around in that now? He's been spreading it about that he bested you in a fight and wasted you. Well I see he didn't waste you, but as for the rest..." He trailed off, raising an eyebrow.

"Spike's a coward. He never fought me. He took advantage of the situation. You wouldn't understand, Demon Dog."

"Oh, so you just vanished for two weeks and then turn up with Faye hiding yourself under a cloak, hmm?"

"Dev, drop it," I suggested. "It's a long story and I'm too tired. It's been a really long day, okay?"

"So what about Ebony?" Zoot asked. "What happened to her?"

I didn't want to talk about it, but he was insistent, and after all I owed it to him.

"She was looking for you, and she came to the Mall. I think she followed Bray in, he turned up late. But she left. That was the day of the wedding. I haven't heard a thing since then."

Zoot sat down on the old office chair.

"You've ruined everything. Spike's leading the Locos, Ebony is hell knows where, and I'm a stray. It's your fault."

"Uh huh. And it's also my fault you know your daughter, hmm?"

"Daughter?" Dev said quietly.

"Why do you think I was in the Mall that night in the first place?"

"Why are you so worried about Ebony anyway? I thought you loved Trudy."

"Trudy?" Dev said.

"I'm not concerned for Ebony's health, if that's what you mean. She'll have her claws dug in somewhere. I'm surprised Spike somehow got the better of her. He's up to something. He's no leader, he just wants the power. There's no way he bested Ebony on fair terms. So either one of them is up to something, or she's dead."

That left us in silence. The room quickly darkened as night fell outside. It was cold and a little smelly, but it was better than nothing. I cleared the desk and curled up on it, as tired as I'd ever been, but I couldn't sleep. Instead I pretended, my face against the wall, and listened. For ages Dev and Zoot didn't speak, but as I was finally beginning to drop off, Dev said something quietly to Zoot.

"Spike claims he wasted Ebony too, but he didn't. We saw her yesterday in the train yard, and the Roosters have been out and about loads more over the last few days. They've taken over the docks."

"Sounds like Ebony's work."


	16. A Demon Dog Affair

I woke to someone shaking my shoulder. It was dark, but his whispering voice identified him as Dev.

"Faye. Time to get up. We have to leave. Zoot's gone and I'm not sticking around for him to bring the Locos here."

My eyes snapped open and I swung off the desk, stumbled, and righted myself.

"What? When?"

"Dunno, during the night. I just woke up and he's not here. He took the bags."

"Both of them? They're heavy."

"Yes, both of them. Hurry up."

"They've got some of my clothes in. Git. Where are we going? What time is it?" I peered out the window around the plywood. It was light outside.

"After dawn, and forget the clothes. And I have some mates in sector four. They'll help us out for a bit. For a price."

"What price? Zoot took everything we have."

I turned to see Dev filling and old canvas bag with tins from one of the desk drawers.

"Not everything. I took a few tins out last night when he was asleep. Not many, but it'll be enough."

"You took some out." It wasn't a question.

"In case of emergency. Come on, let's get moving."

He put the last two tins into the filling cabinet and locked it with a key on a string around his neck.

"Absolute emergency."

"Right. Why would he do that, though?"

"He's Zoot. What excuse does he need? It's free food, isn't it?"

"I trusted him. I thought he'd changed. He has Sunshine now."

"Big mistake. And what does sunshine have to do with anything?"

"That's his daughter's name. That's what he named her."

"Zoot has a daughter? Toffee and fudge, what next? Peace between Locos and Demon Dogs?"

I raised my eyebrows. "That will never happen. Lead the way."

I followed Dev through the window and replaced the board covering it. We made our way through the quiet streets quickly, always alert for sign of a hostile tribe. Soon we'd left sector six and entered the area of older buildings and what had once been small, successful businesses and lawyers offices and the higher class of estate and holiday agencies. We were in sector four, and standing prominently on the hill, a storey higher than most of the other buildings in the area, was the library.

We rounded a corner to find a bunch of kids crowded in the middle of the street, jeering at whatever was in the centre of their huddle. I jumped back around the corner and pressed myself against the wall, and Dev moved in next to me. Carefully I peered round to watch.

One of the kids shouted to another, "Get 'is coat, it'll be worth a fortune." Then a saw someone else with my bag and knew Zoot was their target, and they had our food.

"What's going on?" Dev asked.

"It's Zoot. Come on, we have to do something."

He grabbed my arm. "Are you kidding?"

"That's our food and my t-shirts they're stealing. Just back me up and play along."

I took a deep breath and strode out into the street.

"Oi! What do you think you're doing?" I shouted.

"We got Zoot," one of them replied. "And he's got food. Look. Sweetcorn and peaches."

I snorted. "Are you kidding? Zoot's dead. Looks to me you got Marty there. The guy that wasted Zoot and took his clothes as a trophy."

"Don't be stupid, everyone knows Spike wasted Zoot," a boy of about nine piped up.

"Ha, like that scrawny little bottom feeder could waste Zoot. And that still makes Zoot dead, and thus Marty there is not Zoot. What else does Spike claim to have done, hmm? He said he wasted Ebony, but Ebony's with the Roosters now. Dev here saw her, didn't you?"

"Yup, just the other day over in sector nine."

"Right. So you kids back off my mate Marty and give us back our food, and everything will be fine. Right, Dev? Cause this is Demon Dog property and you're going to leave right now before we bring the rest of the Demon Dogs in here to waste you."

"Right. Back off," Dev said threateningly. I hoped it would work. His tribepaint might be enough to convince the kids this was a Demon Dog affair.

It worked. They dropped the bags, but nabbed a few tins, and ran off. Zoot was lying on the tarmac, bleeding and groaning in pain. Dev went for the bags, I went to Zoot.

"Leave him, come on, let's go."

I was tempted to leave Zoot lying there. After all, he'd run off with my food and my clothes and he was still Zoot, but I'd promised Trudy, and Sunshine couldn't grow up without a father.

"Can you walk?"

He groaned something, but I couldn't tell if it was a yes or a no.

"Come on, let's get you up then. We have to find somewhere safe before they figure out I was bluffing. You owe me big time."

As I spoke I hauled him up. It turned out he couldn't walk. He was barely concious, so I was practically dragging him along.

"Where is it we're going, Dev?"

"My friends live about fifteen minutes away."

"Fifteen minutes? That's too far, we'll never get there with the bags and with Zoot like this."

"Just leave him. If we run we can make it in ten minutes."

"I'm not leaving him. The library's closer. Let's go there. It might be empty."

"Are you kidding? That place is full of books."

"And it's the last place anyone is going to look for Zoot, right? Dev please. Humour me?"

He sighed. "Fine. But you owe me, right? Two banana milkshakes and a Mars bar. And a bacon sandwich."

"The next two banana milkshakes, Mars bar and bacon sandwich I see are all yours, no question," I promised. "Now come on."


	17. The Library

It took nearly ten minutes to haul Zoot to the library, and once we were inside I was exhausted

It took nearly ten minutes to haul Zoot to the library, and once we were inside I was exhausted. There were a few books strewn around, a few missing entirely, but apart from that and the graffiti on the outsides of the windows it was just as it had always been before the virus.

"Secure the doors, would you?" I asked Dev from where I sat on the carpetted floor.

"Two Mars bars," he said, but did so anyway.

I sighed with relief, and looked around. There was no way we could know the library was empty without checking, but that would mean leaving Zoot lying on the floor bleeding. I dragged him behind the large, curving front desk. Once there I finally looked at him properly.

He had a cut over his eyebrow and a huge bruise around it. His nose was oozing blood, some of which had dried across his cheek. His knuckes were grazed and his wrists bruised. Carefully I peeled off his jacket, now slightly ripped, then his shirt and the sports vest under it.There were bruises all over his chest, concentrated in one band on the right of his chest. If I knew anything from TV, that meant he probably had a cracked rib. No a happy thought.

"Dev, pass me a bottle of water, would you? And keep watch in case this place isn't as empty as we thought."

"What about breakfast?" he asked, passing the bottle.

"Breakfast will have to wait until we know this place is secure." I said it with reluctance, because I was hungry too.

I tipped a little water onto Zoot's scrunched up shirt and used it to wipe away the dried blood on his face and clean his cuts as much as was possible with a shirt that hadn't been washed at least since he arrived in the Mall.

"What are you doing? We can't afford to waste water."

"This is my water, Dev. I'll use it for whatever I want."

I continued to clean the cuts for a few moments in silence.

"So what's this long story about where the Loco's been the last two weeks?" Dev asked softly.

I sighed and put down the damp shirt. "I don't think there's much more I can do for him until he wakes up. Let's have a look around and I'll tell you, okay?"

I placed the cloak over Zoot like a blanket and rose to my feet.

"Let's hide the bags somewhere," I suggested.

They went into a cupboard under the desk and we moved off to check the library out. As we moved around I quietly told Dev everything that had happened since the virus. We'd confirmed that all three levels of the library were empty of other occupants, including what had once been the staff room, when there had been staff, by the time I finished.

"Well?" I said as we returned to the front desk where Zoot still slept.

"The staff room is probably the best place to set up a home. There's a sink and counters and comfy chairs and stuff," Dev replied. "And there was still some water in the water cooler, did you see? And there's a fridge too."

"It won't work. No electricity, remember? And I didn't mean that anyway. I meant Zoot."

"Still, if we can hook up a car battery to it, we might be able to get it working. The microwave too. Imagine that – hot food!"

"Could you stop avoiding the topic please?"

Dev sighed. "I don't have a choice, do I? Either I stay here with you and the Loco. Former Loco. Whatever. I stay here with you and him or I go out and face the city and the Demon Dogs. This place is as safe as it's possible to be with him around, and there's food and warmth and plenty to keep me occupied if I get bored. But the fact remains that he is Zoot. You know what he's done since the virus came. He's ruined lives. He's evil. People just don't change like that. Not even if they find out they've got a kid of their own. I don't trust him and you shouldn't either. I mean, come on. Just an hour ago we woke up to find out he'd nicked off with all your food."

I nodded. Dev was right. There was no knowing how Zoot would react to anything. He'd acted almost normal when I'd had him locked up in the cage, and when he talked to Trudy and played with Sunshine out of it, but that was a completely different situation to what we were in now. For a start, then he'd been entirely dependant on my goodwill. It seemed now that I'd been too quick to bestow it. Then there was the Loco's attack. Had Spike's betrayal made Zoot's decision for him? I wondered if Zoot would have left with them if they'd been more welcoming towards him, or if he'd planed the stay with Trudy and Sunshine anyway. What were Zoot's motives? What did he want? More importantly, what could I do to see that whatever he wanted didn't interfere with or contradict my own plans or my promise to Trudy.

"Well, in any case we should move him away from the entrance and up to that staff room if we can. We should try to find something we can use as a stretcher. I don't want to move him too much in case it makes his injuries worse."

"Very well."

We searched a while for something that might do for a stretcher, but found nothing of any use. Instead we hauled him onto a chair and carried that up awkwardly between us. I found that almost as difficult as I had bringing him from the street where the kids had attacked him to the library, thanks to the bulky shape of the chair and the narrow stairs we needed to climb. At least with Dev helping out there was less weight for me to carry.

We lay Zoot under the window. Despite the jolting he'd gone through on the way up, he hadn't stirred. I felt his forehead and listened to his breathing, but I didn't really have much a of a clue what I was looking for. His breathing seemed a little faster and shallower than normal, but surely that was only a sign of his damaged rib. Yet surely if nothing else was wrong with him he'd have woken by now. His continued sleep worried me, but I didn't know enough to do anything about it.

But there might be someone who could. Dal had helped Trudy when she'd been unwell after the birth. He'd gone to his father's surgery to find the medicine she needed, and Jack and Amber had found a CD with information about illnesses and located what they needed with what battery power remained in the laptop. Perhaps whatever was wrong with Zoot could be similarly remedied, if only I could persuade them to help Zoot. That would be the difficult part.


	18. Paracetamol

Dev wasn't happy about being left alone in the Library with Zoot, but I eventually persuaded him, promising to be back within three hours. I didn't take anything with me, but crept unencumbered through the streets. It was early enough that the Locos and Demon Dogs would not be on the prowl yet, but there were strays about, scavenging for food and anything else they could get.

The alarms went off before I'd gone far into the sewer, and within moments Lex, Ryan, Bray and Jack clambered down, armed with a variety of sports equipment.

"Oh great," Lex said. "Faye's back. What's the matter, Faye? Did Zoot run off without you?"

"No," I said shortly. "I won't be staying long. I need to talk to Bray and Dal, actually." He tried to stop me, but I pushed right past.

Jack hurried off to find Dal while I led Bray up to the roof; we'd have some privacy up there.

"What's wrong?" Bray asked me when we reached the deserted roof.

I took a breath. "Zoot's hurt. We were ambushed by a bunch of strays, and he won't wake up. I think he's got a cracked rib too. I don't know what to do, I don't have any medical knowledge."

"That's why you need Dal," Bray realised.

I nodded. At that moment Dal joined us on the rooftop.

"Dal. Zoot's hurt. I need you to come and look at him. Please."

"You want me to help Zoot?" He sounded incredulous.

"Yes. Please. If not for his sake then for Trudy and Sunshine."

Dal wavered.

"Dal," Bray said. "Look at me. This is my little brother we're talking about here, even if he is Zoot. Faye says he needs help. Can you help him?"

Dal hestitated, then – finally – nodded and said "Okay. Let me get my things."

As he hurried away I sighed with relief.

"See you downstairs by the sewer door," Bray called to him across the roof.

"I didn't expect it to be that easy," I admitted.

"Don't complain," Bray suggested. "Come on."

As we made our way back downstairs I told Bray about meeting Dev, but didn't explain the exact circumstances of the attack on Zoot.

Bray and I wandered around the library while Dal went into what had been the staff room to look at Zoot. Dev stood by in case Dal needed anything, leaving Bray and me the opportunity to talk about the situation.

"There's no electricty here, or water," I told him. "It's not like home, and it's not nearly as secure as the Mall. For now at least it'd be better for Trudy and Sunshine to stay there. In the meantime, I'll see if I can get electricity and water set up."

"It might not need to come to that," Bray said. "Salene told me she feels guilty about driving you out of the Mall. I don't think she's the only one. I think I might be able to convince the others to let Martin stay in the Mall."

"That could be a challenge," I said, understating. "Especially with Lex. You remember what he was like when you and Trudy arrived. Lex is not going to be convinced, and Ryan and Zandra will do whatever he tells them to."

"I know," Bray said. "But if you and Dev can get Martin to something like what he used to be, it'll help our cause."

"Might be difficult," I pointed out. "As far as Zoot's concerned, Dev's still a Demon Dog. And, well, I'm not exactly in his good books either. He blames me for Spike taking over the Locos. I think perhaps I should put as much effort into clean water and electricity as bringing Zoot round."

Bray nodded. "I guess it's always a good idea to have a backup plan."

"That's as much as I can do," Dal said with finality. He'd bandaged Zoot's chest and given me a pack of paracetamol for Zoot. "I don't know what's wrong with him apart from the cracked rib. You'll just have to wait for him to wake up."

I was disappointed, of course, but Dal was no more a qualified doctor than I was a carpenter, as my dad had been. He'd done as much as he knew how to, which considering everything was a lot more than could be expected. I thanked him, and wished him and Bray goodbye.

Zoot slept all the rest of the day, and only woke as it was getting dark. He tried to sit up, flinched at the pain, and lay down again.

"What happened?" he asked hoarsely.

"Do you want some water?" I asked, ignoring his question for the time being.

He seemed torn between the desire for an answer and the need for liquid. At last he nodded. I fetched a bottle and poured some into a slightly chipped mug.

"You'll need to sit up," I told him. There were no straws in the library.

He nodded, and I helped him sit up, supporting his back as he drank the water a few sips at a time.

"You got beaten up," I told him. "By a bunch of strays. They recognised you, but I managed to convince them you weren't you. Or possibly Dev convinced them it was a Demon Dog affair that they didn't want to get involved in. Either way, you'd be lying dead in the street right now if it weren't for us."

"Might not have been," he croaked sulkily.

"You were unconcious when we got to you, and bleeding too. Don't kid yourself. You've got a lot to answer to, Zoot, and a lot of people to thank. Bray and Dal came over. He doctored you. Dev looked after you while I went to the Mall to bring Bray and Dal here. He didn't want to, and you can hardly blame him for that, but he did. So you'd better act a bit more grateful, a bit more friendly, in future, or even Bray and Trudy will have a hard time convincing themselves you're worth the trouble."

The rant came out and I couldn't stop it, and after it I felt a little guilty at going on at him like that right after he'd woken up. I justified it by telling myself that someone needed to tell him just how much of a jerk he was.

"Huh," he said. "So why are you helping me?"

"Trudy and Bray are my friends," I told him, "And I care about what happens to that little girl of yours. She shouldn't have to grow up without a father. There are enough kids in this city whose parents have died. I remember what you were like before the virus, Martin. I know you're capable of emotions other than hate."

"Don't call me that," he snapped, and winced again as his hurt rib caused him pain.

"You want a paracetamol?"

"Don't need it," he insisted, but I could hear the pain in his voice. "I was weak back then. I'll never be weak again. You remember Tom Lawson? And Jamie Heath?" I nodded. They'd been the two bullies in Martin's year. He had been their main target. "They're dead now. Them and their whole gang, except one. The virus was good, you see. It cleansed the world of rules and laws, and allowed choas to take over. Power and Chaos. The virus enabled me to take my revenge."

He was starting to scare me now. I'd thought, allowed myself to believe, that he could change, that he could be Martin again, that he was leaving all about him that was Zoot behind and becoming someone who would be a good father for Sunshine.

"You're such a git, you know that?" I said, disgusted. "Strength and weakness isn't about who can beat up who, or who has the bigger or better gang. You're weaker now than you ever were."

I lowered him to the ground less gently than I really should have, and left him to his thoughts.


	19. Dada

Dev was out wandering around the library, looking more thoroughly than we had that morning, looking for anything we might be able to make use of. There wasn't much. A scarf and an umbrella in the lost property box under the desk. There were a few chairs we could put together to make beds. A few books that might prove useful, like a scouting one that Dev thought might contain information about lighting fires and getting water from the dew. Everything else in the library had no value beyond entertainment, trade or fuel should we need to light a fire – which seemed a likelyhood as the days grew shorter.

"Something wrong, Faye?" Dev asked after I slammed a book closed.

I sighed. "I thought he could change," I said, "But he's still Zoot."

"I told you," Dev said. "People like him don't change."

Maybe he was right. Maybe now that he'd become Zoot, there was no turning back. After all, there was no way to make it so the virus had never happened, and it had been the virus that changed Martin into Zoot in the first place. Why would Sunshine's existance have such a big effect on a guy like him anyway? Zoot could do what he liked. If he didn't want to change, I'd just go back to the Mall with Dev and leave Zoot to do whatever he wanted.

The following morning I got breakfast prepared for us all; a tin of peaches and one of pineapple chunks between us. There were not many tins left, only twenty six. There had been more in our packs, but some had been stolen by the kids that had ambushed Zoot, two were still in Dev's little hiding place, and we'd already eaten seven since arriving at the library.

"I think we're going to have to ration food," I told the boys as we ate. "Otherwise it won't even last a few days. I think we can make it last a week if we eat no more than four tins a day."

"What, between us? We'll starve!" Dev protested.

"We'll starve sooner if there's no food at all in four days," I pointed out. "In the mean time, I'll go back to the Mall and see if I can get some more food. Water is going to be a problem too. We need to set up a way of collecting it before it rains again. We can use the shelves to create a platform between the two parts of the roof to put a tank on, and I can get some tools from the Mall for that. I bet I could set up a garden up there too, so we can grow some food when the weather warms up again."

"What's the point?" Zoot asked, the first words he'd spoken since the previous evening. "We don't have enough food to last a week. What makes you think we'll last half a year?"

"We've survived a winter without adults before," I said, not really convincing myself. There had been more food around back then. "We can trade. There's bound to be somewhere with food that we can trade for. Besides, there's still food at the Mall. I don't think they can object too loudly if I ask for some of it. It wouldn't be there if it weren't for me."

"Huh! We're not going to last that long here. The Locos have food, plenty of it, but, oh look, I'm not their leader any more am I?"

"You don't know that Spike wouldn't have tried to take over anyway," I retorted. "It looked to me like he had a lot of support against you. If you were really all great a leader, why did theose guys attack you?"

"Spike's been plotting behind my back for months, but he's never dared go against me until I supposedly vanish – thanks to you."

I had nothing to say to that, but pretended I didn't care. I finished my breakfast quickly, left my bowl and fork in the sink, and went to wander around the library on the off-chance we'd missed something in the previous searches.

I would have to confront Zoot at some point, and it would have to be soon, before we ran out of food. I needed to know if he wanted to remain as Zoot or change and become Martin again. Maybe it was already impossible, I thought, flicking through a book with pictures of Roman temples in. What if the virus and the changes it had brought had forced a change in him that could not be reversed? It wasn't unheard of. After all, Bray had changed. He'd hardened, put up walls in his mind that made him slightly less friendly, slightly more suspicious and sarcastic, than he'd ever been at school. Dev hardly told any jokes any more. There was little slapstick to his actions. I'd not seen his old grin since we'd met in the train yard days before. As for me... when was the last time I'd told anyone what I really felt? Aside from the angry outburst back in the Mall, which with hindsight seemed so misguided and stupid, I'd not said a thing about what I felt inside since the virus.

Nine months of loneliness caught up with me. I sat down right there, in the middle of the ground floor of the library, books scattered around me and another open on my lap, and just let the tears that I'd been holding back for so long fall. I hunched over the book, turned the pages slowly in case the boys should see me, and tried to remember what mum and dad looked like.

I don't know how long I say there. I wasn't disturbed. After a while I composed myself, wiped my eyes with my sleeve, and closed the book. Slowly I made my way upstairs to the staff room. Neither Zoot nor Dev were in there. So Zoot was well enough, or at least stubborn enough, to walk around now. I found him a few minutes later, sitting on a pile of books between two shelves, looking out of the window across the city.

"What is it you want, Zoot?" I asked softly. "Do you like being hated and feared? Or was it the power you liked? Was it really all that great? Do you want all that back more than you want to watch your daughter grow up? Which is better? Hate and fear, power and chaos, or love and respect and seeing joy in your child's eyes?"

He didn't turn around. "You have no idea," he snarled, "What I've been through since the virus. What I've done. What I've needed to do to hold on to my power."

He was going to say more, but I interrupted. "Do you want her first word to be dada?"

He didn't reply. I left it at that and walked away.


	20. Theft

By the middle of the afternoon we were all hungry; after all, breakfast had only been two thirds of a tin each. Unable to wait until a more traditional time for dinner, I called the boys to the staff room and opened the cupboard to take two out, quickly counting the tins beforehand.

One tin was missing.

I counted a second time, this time more slowly, and this time reached the verdict that two tins were missing. There should be twenty-four, there were twenty-two. I counted again and confirmed this, then turned around to face Dev and Zoot, who had been getting plates, forks and cups of water. One or both had stolen food, and I couldn't rule out either.

"There's food missing," I announced. "Which of you took it?"

"Not me," Dev replied.

"Wasn't me," Zoot said, almost at the same time.

"Oh yeah, sure," Dev said sarcastically to Zoot, "Cause I'm the one who's been whining all day about there being food at the Loco HQ."

"Huh! Like the Demon Dogs don't have any food stores. You said yourself, there'd be more food to go around it I wasn't here."

"Well there would, and the sooner Faye sees for herself what an arrogant, selfish bastard you are-"

"Is that what your plan is? You frame me, make it look like I've nicked food, and then you think-"

"Oh you've got to be kidding! Like I need to frame you, you do all the work yourself-"

"Hey!" I shouted over their din; they continued arguing.

"Hey!" I shouted again, banging a tin against the edge of the sink to catch their attention. This time it worked. They stopped shouting at each other and turned to me, but continued whispering to each other. "None of us are eating until I find out who took the food. And stop arguing, it's doing my head in." I knew I sounded like my mother had when my brother and I argued, but then they say everyone turns out like their mother in the end, and with the boys fighting like this I felt as exasperated as mum had looked back then.

Dev moved over to the door. "Well, I'll leave you two to it, then," he said. "I'm sure Zoot doesn't want me around when he admits he stole the food," he said snidely. He closed the door behind him.

I looked over at Zoot, still sitting at the table. A few seconds passed, then he too got up and left the staff room, leaving me alone in there. All I had to do was wait; and if neither of them came forward by midnight I'd take a third of the food and go back to the Mall alone. It struck me then that whichever of them was the culprit would be less hungry than me and whichever of them was innocent, so this method probably wasn't the most effective, but I could hardly go back on it now.

Over the course of the next hour I paced around the staff room, counted the tins again in case I'd been wrong (I hadn't), tidied away small things that looked out of place, and, finally, stood leaning on the window sill looking out across the city as the sun sank towards the horizon.

It was as I was watching a pair of gulls gliding in the sky in the distance that the door was opened behind me, then shut quietly. I didn't turn around. I didn't want to know, not really. I didn't want Dev to be right about Zoot and I didn't want my friend to have betrayed me.

"I don't care what Sunshine's first word is," Zoot said, and I felt my heart sink. I closed my eyes, stayed still, waited. I heard the clank of metal against the tabletop, once, twice. Two tins, empty; they must be. "So long as I'm there to hear it," Zoot finished, and it took me a moment to realise that, wait, that was a good thing. It meant he wanted to be there for his daughter.

"I'm sorry," he added. It seemed like such an odd thing to hear in his voice. "I..." He seemed to be struggling to say something, but whatever it was I never found out. Instead, he sighed and said, more confidently, "When you go to the Mall to get more food, can you bring back some clothes I could wear? I don't want to wear this stuff any more."

I turned away from the window to face him, and nodded. "Why did you take them?" I asked, motioning to the tins, which were indeed empty, that he'd placed on the table.

Zoot shrugged. "I was hungry. Angry. Selfish. I'm sorry. Really. And if I'm going to be a good dad to Sunshine, I can't go around acting like that."

I couldn't stop the grin from spreading across my face. "So this means you're not going to be Zoot any more? You're going to be Martin again?"

"I don't think I'll ever be how I was before the virus," he replied, "but yes. Zoot's dead."

It was so strange to hear him say that. I smiled.

"Okay, time for dinner then. Could you call for Dev?"

Dev came pretty quickly, looking smug. "So the Loco admitted he's a thief."

"Drop it, Devon," I said, knowing he hated people calling him by his full first name. I served the food out – beans and sweetcorn.

"Woah, hold on a second," Dev said. "You're letting _him_ eat tonight? He stole food!"

I was torn; Dev was right, but Zoot was not fully recovered, he would need the food.

"You're right," Zoot said, surprising us both. "I'm not hungry anyway." He left the room.

I stared at the door as it closed behind him.

"Did that just happen?" Dev asked.

"Yes it did."

And as we ate our supper, slightly more than usual because of Zoot's absence, I told Dev what had happened.

"You see?" I concluded. "He could change. You were wrong."

"I still don't trust him," Dev said, "But I guess so. Uh, and when you go to the Mall, could you get some clothes for me too?"


	21. Marty

I went early the next morning, taking with me a few books that the Mallrats might find useful, in case Lex insisted on trade rather than charity. There were few people up this early, and I passed through the city without issue.

As before the alarm went off as I was passing through the sewer. I passed the tripwire and waited at the bottom of the steps from the Mall. Lex and Ryan turned up, both in their boxers – not a sight I particularly wanted to see – and both looking as if they'd just woken up.

"Faye. You given up on the Loco then?" Lex said sarcastically.

"Morning, Lex. Sorry, did I wake you? I've just come for a visit. Need a word with Jack about something, and we're running out of food."

"Food?" Lex protested, just as Amber arrived on the scene. "I don't think so."

"Don't worry," I reassured him. "I have items for trade."

"Come on in," Amber said.

We all went up to the cafe, where everyone was assembling for breakfast as Salene was cooking it. Ignoring Lex' protests I accepted Amber's offer of breakast; I'd not eaten hot food for days and it would mean the food we had in the library would last longer.

"So," said Amber as I feasted on baked beans and tinned sausage. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"

I finished the last forkful before answering. "I need to ask Jack for a little help setting up a water supply, and I hope to take some of the seeds back with me so we can grow food for ourselves. But until then we need tins to keep us going. I brought some books back from the library I thought you might find useful for trade. And we need some more clothes for Dev and Zoot."

"Who's Dev?" Cloe asked.

"A friend of mine from school," I told her. "He was in the Demon Dogs, and he helped us out the day we left the Mall."

"A Demon Dog?" Patsy said.

"You've got a Demon Dog and a Loco living peacefully under the same roof?" Amber asked, amazed. "You can't make this stuff up."

"I never claimed it was peaceful," I pointed out. "Far from it. They argue constantly. But it's not so bad."

"Morning Faye," Bray said as he arrived in the cafe. "How's Martin?"

"Better," I told him. "I brought the paracetamol back, he didn't want them."

"Trudy's still asleep, Sunshine was awake early this morning and so she takes advantage of whatever sleep she can get."

I nodded.

"What you got, then?" Lex asked, interrupting, motioning towards the bag I'd put on the ground beside my chair.

"Just coming to it, Lex," I replied, and undid the clips to reveal a bag full of books. I took them out one at a time: a gardening book; one about electricity I'd thought might be useful; a couple of young teen fictions for Cloe, Patsy and Paul; a couple of medical journals containing articles about spotting symptoms, and one containing a discourse on water purity; a sceintific study of diet that might help them to work out balanced meals; a few scouting journals that contained a lot of interesting and useful information; a few more fictions, and, finally, a handful of CDs from the music library.

"We've got loads more if you need them. CDs too, loads and loads of them. I don't know what these are, I just grabbed them at random, but if you want any specific bands I can have a look for you."

Ryan picked up a CD case. "Hey, awesome, I used to love this band."

Lex grabbed it from his hand and replaced it on the pile on the table. "This is nothing," he said. "We're gonna need more than this for what you want."

"You've not heard what I want yet," I said, "And like I said, there's more CDs if you want them. Books too. I live in a library, for goodness sakes. We have lots of books. What we want, however, is food and water. Forty tins and twenty five bottles will enable us to last another week, maybe a bit longer. I don't think it'd be a good idea to carry more than that through the city. Clothes too. I'll take some of my own with me, but the guys need a change of clothes each too. And I need Jack's help to set up a rain collection and purification system on the roof."

"Forty tins?" Lex seemed indignant. "Are you joking? We're not giving you all that much for what you've brought here."

I sighed. "And I can't carry it all back on my own. I'll need someone to help out, so whoever comes back with me can bring back more books and CDs for you with them. You've got stereos here, you can listen to them easily enough."

Ignoring Lex's continued protests, Amber agreed to my offer and on another table the tins and bottles of water I'd asked for were soon lined up. Clothes were a little harder to find. Lex had taken a lot of them that fit, and anyway there were fewer clothes shops for guys in the Mall than there were for girls. Eventually I had a neat little pile of t-shirts, jackets and trousers. Leaving the kids looking for more, I went up to the roof with Jack to discuss water collection and filtering. We gathered a few containers from the storage rooms, as well as some tools and other items we'd need. While we were up there I looked though the box of seed packets and took one of each kind of vegetable.

Once everything I was taking back with me was compiled in the cafe, I realised exactly how much of it there was. Jack and I alone would not be able to carry it all. Bray volunteered to help, and straight after, so did Salene, then Ryan too.

"In case you need someone to fight," he said. "Like if the Locos come or something."

In the end, with five of us to carry all the stuff, each bag was pretty light. As we exited the sewer it started to rain, a drizzle at first, but it soon turned heavier. I hoped Dev and Zoot had enough sense to get some sort of container – the wasing up bowl, perhaps – up on the roof to collect the rain water; we couldn't afford to waste what chances we got.

If any of the tribes were out in the worsening weather, they weren't where we were, and neither was anyone else; presumably they were all sheltering from the rain. We hurried back, shoulders hunched, and finally made it back into the library, dripping on the carpet and shivering.

Dev must have been watching for my return, because he came down almost as soon as I'd finished securing the door.

"Hiya Bray," he said, coming into view around the edge of a bookcase. "Faye, you gonna introduce me? What's in the bags?"

"The stuff I traded for. Dev, this is Jack, Ryan and Salene. Ryan, Jack, Salene, this is Dev." I turned to him. "We've got another forty tins, and they're taking some books and CDs back with them. And Jack came to help sort out a water filter system. Where's Zoot?"

"He says to call him Marty now," Dev replied. "I think he's on the roof, sorting out some containers to collect water in. You need help unpacking?"

The bags were soon empty, the tins and bottles of water arranged neatly in cupboards in the staffroom. Dev rifled through the clothes and chose a few items, then disappeared for a while as the rest of us sorted through the tools and other things we'd brought for the water filter, under Jack's direction. With five of us working on it, it was soon constructed and only needed the addition of sand and gravel in layers before it could be used. Dev came back in as we were finishing, wearing a royal blue t-shirt and black jeans, with a red hoodie tied around his waist.

He looked a lot more like he had before the virus.

"So you guys are taking stuff back with you, huh?" he said. "Want me to show you where everything is?"

"Uh, sure," Salene said. She and Ryan followed Dev downstairs; Jack was tinkering with the water filter system, adjusting a screw here, something else there. Bray stayed with me.

"So Martin's on the roof, is he?" he asked.

"Apparently. Want me to show you how to get there?"

"No, I'll find it. Top floor skylights, right?"

"Yup."

So he went.

"I think it'll work now," Jack muttered, not looking up. "Just add the layers of sand and gravel."

Some time later, their bags full of books and CDs, the Mallrats left the library to return through the damp streets to that Mall. Bray seemed satisfied by whatever discussion he'd had with his brother. Marty, as he now wished to be known, was still on the roof, presumably occupied with collecting water. Just before they left, Bray took me aside.

"You could come back, you know," he said. "Marty and Dev can look after themselves until we've persuaded the others to let them into the Mall, and if you're there to help talk them round, it might happen sooner."

I hesitated, considering. I missed the Mall, but with so many people there now it felt crowded and no longer my own. "Not yet," I said at last. "I wanna make sure everything's running smoothly here first."

After the others had gone, Dev told me he wanted to show me something. He took me to a distant corner of the first floor, a cozy space surrounded by shelves, containing most of the library's soft chairs and the three beanbags which I'd previously seen in the children's section. I browsed the books on the shelves. A few gardening books, but the rest were fiction, some detective thrillers, some fantasy, some sci-fi. I recognised the names of a few authors – J R R Tolkein and Arthur Conan Doyle and Jane Austen – but there were many I hadn't heard of.

"We thought you might like it."

I raised an eyebrow. "We?"

"Yeah. Me and Marty."

"Go on," I said. "Tell me what happened when I was gone."

"Well, uh..." It was the first time I'd heard Dev be really awkward. "Last night, after dinner, he came and apologised to me, about, you know, the food. And, well, after what you said, you know, about how he could change, well, I also, um apologised."

"And this?" I asked, indicating the bean bags, chairs and shelves with a sweep of my hand.

"Well, we got talking. It's a thank-you for putting up with us, and helping us out, and stuff. We brought books we thought you might like."

I grinned. "It's wonderful. Is Z- Marty still on the roof?"

"Uh, I think so. You stay here, I'll go get him."

He hurried off before I could protest. I shrugged, and got comfortable in a bean bag. Here was something I hadn't expected. Zoot – no, Marty, I reminded myself – and Dev getting along, and after they'd been at each other's throats just a day before. I felt guiltily proud of myself – I'd been ready to give up on them ever being civil to each other, much less friends. Not that it was really my victory. I'd not even been in the library at the time. Still, it was something.

"Faye."

I turned. Marty stood there. Not Zoot, but Marty.

His dreadlocks were gone, leaving short blond stubble sticking out unevenly from his head. He wore a dark blue brand-name t-shirt and baggy jeans. There was new tribe paint on his face, three bars across one cheek in royal blue and a line down his chin. The change was so great I barely recognised him.

"Wow," I managed at least, hauling myself to my feet.

"This is the new me," he said. "No more Zoot. The old me was long gone months ago, and I'm never going back to who I was before the virus. So I made a decision. New me. Stronger me. Better me."

I just nodded. I couldn't think of anything to say in reply. "Um," I said at last. "Thanks for all this."

"Don't mention it." He hestitated. "Thanks," he said.


	22. Trading

The following day we woke early. The water filter system needed sand and gravel, and we needed compost if we wanted to grow our own food, so we packed some books and CDs to trade with the tribe Jack had told me had taken over the garden centre. We chose the books carefully, anything that might be useful or wanted.

Dev was staying at the library to guard our new home and start looking into a way to make an electrical generator. I set off with Marty in the early morning. The drizzle had continued through the night, and the streets were empty. We shared an umbrella someone had left in the library's umbrella rack, but our trousers were soon soaked up to our knees.

Further from the city centre, we saw a few kids out scavenging, but stayed clear of them and they merely glared at us as we passed. At last we reached the old garden centre. It seemed to have militarised since I'd last seen it, years before. The lower half of the building was covered in plywood, and in places the glass above it was broken. There was one entrance. Shelves had been stacked around it and a gate placed in front of it.

A guard wearing a black motorbike helmet and holding a broom handle stood in front of the door. When he saw us approaching, he stopped scanning the surrounding area and fixed his gaze on us. As we got closer, he stepped back and rapped on the door, then returned to his position. Moments later, the door opened and four more kids came out, each with a garden implement held as a weapon.

We stopped a few metres away from them.

"We've come to trade," Marty said.

"What have you got?" one of the garden centre's residents asked, stepping forward.

"Books," I told him, "and CDs."

"Show us."

I shook the umbrella a little. Droplets fell to the ground around us. "It's raining," I pointed out. "Can we come inside?"

The kids murmured amongst themselves for a moment. Their leader nodded and held open the door behind him. I glanced at Marty. He shrugged and climbed over the gate. I passed him the umbrella and followed.

Inside, the garden centre was large, light and open. Rows of plants were in varying degrees of growth. There were about twelve kids I could see. Their leader and the helmetted guard seemed the eldest. The youngest was a girl in a pink t-shirt and green shorts who looked about six or seven.

The leader took us to a table to the left of the entrance. He cleared the detritus off and dumped it on a nearby chair.

"What have you got then?" he asked. "Let's see."

I began unloading my bag, revealing the books we'd so carefully chosen. The leader looked at them with a blank expression on his face. He didn't seem impressed, but it might have been an act.

"And what do you want for this lot?"

Marty answered. "Four bags of gravel, two of sand, and eight of compost, as well as twelve packets of vegetable seeds and twenty plant trays."

The leader stared at him, then laughed.

"You think we're going to accept that? You're talking about our source of food and income here. We're not about to allow a rival to spring up and take away our business."

"We're not trying to start a business with this stuff," I protested. "We're just trying to feed our tribe."

"And we have only your word for that. We're not about to risk a rival for a few books. You're going to need to make a better offer than that."

"We can give you information about how to build a water filter." I tried to keep the desperation from my voice. We needed this stuff in case Bray failed to persuade the Mallrats to let Marty and Dev in.

"Already got one," the leader sniped back. "It was here before the virus. Is that all you have? Because if it is all we can offer for those books is one bag of compost, say, three plant trays and one packet of seeds."

"Are you kidding?" I asked. "Look at these books. Fiction for the little ones, useful books about gardening and diet and electricity."

"We have gardening books. Where do you think we are? As for fiction, Jedro over here is full of stories the little ones like to hear. We've survived so far without electricity, and our diet is perfectly fine. As for the CDs, we don't have CD players or batteries. Take those back. I made a fair offer, but you don't seem to think what I have offered is worth as much as a bunch of old books written by adults. Nevertheless, I'll increase the offer in the spirit of friendly trade. One bag of compost, five plant trays and two packs of seeds."

This wasn't going well.

"How about this?" Marty asked, pulling something from his backpack.

I gaped. "Zoot – 's jacket." I was as horrified that I'd almost given him away as I was that he'd brought his old jacket. "Are you sure?" I whispered.

He nodded. "It cost me a lot to get hold of this," Marty told the leader. "The Demon Dogs tried to trade for it, but they didn't offer enough. Everyone wants a bit of Zoot's stuff, and why shouldn't they? He terrorised this city for long enough, and owning his stuff is like revenge, right? But right now, that's less important to me than making sure my tribe survives. I've got a baby girl back there, and she can't eat a dead tyrant's jacket. So, if you want this, I want every single item I listed at the beginning of this exchange, plus two trolleys to take it home in. And we get to chose the seeds."

We'd both seen how hungrily the leader had looked at Zoot's jacket when Marty had mentioned the Demon Dogs. Clearly he was looking at trading it with them for more than we wanted for it.

"And you can keep the books," Marty added.

The leader chuckled. "Oh, you're good. Very good. But how do I know this jacket is even the real thing? Kid came by last week trying to sell us Zoot's goggles, but I'm not stupid. They were just normal swimming goggles. This could just be another hoax, though a better prepared one. And nice acting when he pulled it out of the bag, girlie. Almost convincing."

Marty stared at him, then turned to me. "Hear that? You were almost convincing," he said, amusement in his voice. I was not so amused.

"Does Dev know you brought this? Why didn't you tell me?" I hissed.

"Because I knew you'd object, why else?," he whispered back, keeping his voice down so the leader couldn't hear. "It was Bray's suggestion, anyway. Trudy and Sunshine are more important than this, and if Amber sees I've gotten rid of it she's more likely to trust me. It's a win-win situation."

"Lex still hates your guts, and it's him we need to persuade. Stop messing around, Marty. Let's seal this deal or get out. There must be another place like this we can get what we need from. We'd probably get a better deal from someone less determined to be cunning."

"Fine," he said aloud, then addressed the leader. "This kid with the goggles, what did he look like?"

The leader frowned. "Why? Some sort of ploy of yours, is it?"

"No. Just curious, and I don't wanna go buying some fake goggles any time soon."

"Short chubby kid with spiky green hair. Cheeky as hell, micheivous little cretin. Smashed one of our windows with a brick on his way out."

Marty just nodded. I don't think he recognised the description any more than I did.

"You know what we want," he said. "And you can see what we're offering. Take it or leave it. We can find a hardware store with the stuff we want if necessary, but if that's what we'll need to do, we wanna get off. Not a good idea to still be out on the streets when the big tribes start waking up and going about their business."

"Fine," the leader said. "We'll take it. But if we find out you've cheated us, we'll find you and mke you pay what you owe."

"Then we won't be seeing each other again," Marty replied, with mock sweetness in his voice.

We were soon ready to leave. The trolleys were full of bags of compost and gravel and sand. Marty carried one bag of sand in his backpack, and the plant trays and seeds were in mine, along with the CDs they'd not wanted.

The rain was beginning to let up and the sun was poking through the clouds. Ahead, there was a large area of blue sky. We hurried back to the library, finally getting there an hour later after being chased by scavengers until they realised we had no food. Dev let us in and locked the door behind us, exclaiming at the amount we'd brought back.

"How did you get that much?" he asked. "Did they really want the books that much?"

"Nope," I told him. "Marty traded his old jacket."

"Heh. Good idea."


	23. Lex, Llamas and Ligers

In the days that followed we fell into a routine. In the mornings we cleared the top floor to turn it into a greenhouse. The bookshelves became planters, and soon the gravel left over from the water filter was used up as drainage for the planters. A little after that, the compost ran out. It had been enough for the little plant trays we'd traded for and two bookshelves worth of planter. About a third of the seeds were planted, the rest stored in a cupboard in the staff room. We weren't sure if those we had planted would grow in the winter, but it would be a little warmer inside than out, and there was a chance some would sprout before the really cold weather hit.

In the afternoons we sorted through the books, beginning with those we'd cleared from the second floor, and stacked them in piles – those we wanted to keep were put near our cubbyhole, those for the Mallrats under the front desk, those we could trade in one corner of the ground floor near the door, and the others, mostly about law and technology far beyond our post-virus capabilities, we kept on the first floor near the staff room in case we ever needed fuel through the rapidly approaching winter. There were a few old fireplaces around the building, most of them bricked up, and an old electric fire in the staff room's fireplace.

In the evenings we worked on getting an electricty supply working. We spent hours looking through books and searching the library for anything that might be useful, but as the nights got longer we had less and less light to search and read by.

Bray visited every few days and gave us updates on the news back at the Mall. Most times he brought a few tins to replenish our diminishing food supplies, and took a few books and CDs back with him. We showed him our vegetable plot.

The time after that, Bray brought Lex with him.

"Right," Lex said sullenly once we'd locked the door behind him. "Let's get whatever stuff we're taking back and go."

"Not yet, Lex," Bray said. "Follow me." He beckoned Marty to come too, and they vanished upstairs, leaving me and Dev to sort out their bags.

They returned about ten minutes later. Dev and I waited in silence for news, but we didn't need them to tell us. Lex was looking annoying superior, and Bray and Marty had identical scowls on their faces. So Lex was determined to be difficult. Fine. We would deal with it. We didn't have any other choice.

Lex and Bray shouldered their packs, now full of books and CDs from the stacks behind the desk, and left. We watched them though a grubby window until they were out of sight, then Dev and I turned to Marty.

"So what happened?" Dev asked.

"He thinks it's all for show."

"He can't stop you from seeing your kid," Dev replied with more passion than I'd realised he felt for the situation. I looked at him in surprise.

Dev shrugged. "Well, it's true," he said, slightly embarrassed. "If I had a kid I wouldn't let a jerk like him stop me from seeing her."

"Yeah," Marty said, staring out of the window. "Yeah."

"So what now?" I asked.

"Electricity?" Dev suggested.

Ignoring us, Marty unlocked the door and ran out into the city after Lex and Bray. He was gone before we could stop him, leaving us gawping after him, uncertain what to do.

"Should we follow?" I asked Dev.

"I dunno. No, let's stay. Someone's gotta keep this place locked up safe til he gets back, and we should work out the electricity anyway. I found a couple of physics text books under a shelf upstairs, they might be useful."

We fetched the books and a couple of chairs and waited next to the graffitied window, looking out for Marty's return. I was soon confused by electrons and resistors and ohms and no closer to working out how to actually make electricity work an hour later.

"He's been a while. They must have let him in, or he'd be back by now, right?"

"Yeah," I said. "This book isn't any help at all. Your's?"

"Maybe. It's got stuff about wind power, solar power, that sort of thing. Didn't you say there's been electricity in the Mall for weeks?"

"Yeah, but Jack set that up really, I just held stuff when he asked me to. Why? Do you reckon we should ask Jack to come over and help? Only we had trouble finding some of the parts, I don't know if he could remake the same thing."

"What about car batteries? We could go out tomorrow morning and grab a few, hook them up to the heater when it gets cold."

"Most have been looted, haven't they?"

"A lot will have, but if we go to the outskirts, where there are more cars, we might find a few. It might be worth a try."

I wasn't so sure. "What about the tribes? Are there any out there?"

Dev shrugged. "I dunno, I mostly know about the city tribes. Probably, though, or at least groups of strays. Still, what can a bunch of strays do to us? Marty can hold his own in a fight as long as he's not too outnumbered, and I can run fast enough." He grinned. "If you stay here and hold the fort, I'll go with Marty in the morning."

"Okay, but be careful."

Dev tipped back his chair, crossing his ankles on the window sill. "When have you ever known me not to be careful?" he asked – and promptly fell over backwards, sending the book in his lap flying and banging his head on the grubby carpet.

For the first time in far too long, I laughed out loud. Rubbing the back of his head, Dev joined in.

"You did that on purpose," I accused him.

Dev spread his hands, a picture of comic innocence. He tried to say something, but dissolved into giggles.

When he could breathe again, he grinned at me. "Okay, maybe I did do that on purpose, but it's ages since I've seen you smile. We need to brighten this place up a bit and have some fun for once."

I couldn't help but agree with him.

"Hey, didn't there used to be an art shop on Harley Street opposite the arcade?" I said. "We could see what's still in there and redecorate the library a bit."

"Was there an appliances shop in the Mall? Only we could do with a microwave if we can get any car batteries. And a washing machine! And maybe a TV and a video player, we could watch some of the films in the film section. And a CD player! Listen to some music for once!"

His enthusiasm was catching. "Yeah, I think so," I replied. "We can bring the stuff back in the shopping trolleys we got from the garden centre."

"Hey, if we're gonna make this work, show the Mallrats we're serious and stuff, why don't we make up a name for ourselves?" Dev suggested, just as I saw Marty returning down the street.

"Hey, Marty's coming back," I said, pointing out the window. "Let's ask him what he thinks."

We unlocked the door and waited as he made his way back. There was a serene smile on his face as he approached.

"How did it go?"

"They let me see them," he said, grinning as I locked the door behind him. "I still can't quite take it all in. You know, that I'm a dad now."

"Cool," Dev said. "I told you so. Anyway, while you were gone we had an idea. Let's redecorate the library, brighten it up a bit. If we get a couple of old car batteries we can use that heater in the staff room when it gets really cold, and we could get a microwave from the Mall and have hot food and maybe a washing machine, that sort of thing. And a name, too. Like a proper tribe."

"What, a name for us three?" Marty asked. "We're hardly a tribe, though."

"Well, we might be," I said. "I mean, if the Mallrats won't let you in, and we get this place working then Trudy and Sunshine can join us, and I reckon I could persuade Jack to come too, and Bray might. That's practically a tribe."

Marty's face fell. "I don't know. It'd feel like we're giving up on joining the Mallrats."

"Do you want to be in the same tribe as that git Lex?" Dev asked sceptically.

Marty and I looked at each other. We'd both seen more of Lex than Dev had, and I'd never liked him from the start anyway.

"What kind of name?" Marty asked. "Did you have any ideas?"

"Uh, Bookworms? Library Llamas?"

I laughed. "Bookworms sounds far too nerdy."

"And Library Llamas sounds like a football team from before the virus," Marty pointed out.

"Well, you suggest something, then," Dev said, and crossed his arms, pretending to be offended.

"Well," Marty began confidently, "How about Leopards, Lions or Lynxes to rhyme with Library?"

"That doesn't rhyme," I pointed out smugly. "It alliterates."

Dev raised an eyebrow at me. "How do you even know that?" he asked.

I shrugged. "I liked that word. Alliterate. It's got a nice sound to it. It's just something I remembered from school."

"From school? I don't even remember learning any fancy words like that," Dev said.

"You never turned up to English class," I pointed out.

"I did sometimes," he protested. "Like that time when The Trout had those huge, thick-lensed glasses on instead of her contacts?"

I grinned at the memory, the image of the unpopular English teacher wearing the glasses in my mind. "Heh."

Marty must have remembered that day, since he grinned too. "Whatever language thing it is, how about it? Library Lynxes?"

"I dunno," I said, "Do we have to have Library in it? I mean, if we get to go back to the Mall, we could still use whatever name we decide on for the three of us."

"That's actually a good idea," Dev replied, sounding mildly impressed.

"I do come up with them occasionally," I retorted.

"So, just Lynxes then?" Marty said, trying to keep us on topic.

Dev shrugged. "I dunno, I've always liked the idea of Ligers. You know, a lion crossed with a tiger. I think they're pretty cool."

"We don't have to stick with animals starting with L, you know," I pointed out.

"Yeah," Marty said, "But Liger does sound pretty cool, right?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Okay, Ligers."

Marty put out his hand, palm down, in between us all. I placed mine on top of his and then Dev put his hand out too.

"Ligers," Marty said.

I nodded. "Ligers."

"Ligers," Dev agreed.


	24. Smashed windows

The next morning, Marty and Dev went out in search of car batteries, and anything else we could use, taking one of the shopping trolleys with them. I stayed in the Library, keeping watch for their return. I used my time to start making a proper bed using a bookshelf and the stuffing from some of the chairs. There were a few tools lying around, some we'd found in the Library and others brought over from the Mall by Jack and me. It was tricky work, especially since I didn't really have any idea what I was doing and I didn't have all the tools I would need.

After a while, I gave up and flicked through a book about diets. It was one of those books by a celebrity chef that went on about how unhealthy people had got, and recommended a few recipes that were considered both healthy and balanced. They all called for fresh vegetables, fresh meat, things like flour and sugar and milk and cheese. Well, we didn't have any of that. We had tinned peaches and tuna and baked beans. Still, I did the best I could to plan future meals.

Dev and Marty had been gone quite a while by the time I'd rearranged the food store and tidied up a bit in the staff room. The room had become a little stuffy in the weeks since I'd left the Mall. I opened a window and leaned on the window sill, looking out. There were a few strays around on the streets below, but none of them looked up. They searched the bins fruitlessly, looking around in case of trouble. I moved back from the window, not wanting them to see me.

It seemed like a long time since I'd left the Mall, but in reality it was no more than a few weeks, about the same amount of time as between when the Mallrats had arrived and when I'd left with Marty. I felt as if I knew Dev and Marty better than any of the Mallrats, except perhaps Bray and Jack. I missed the Mall, some of the Mallrats, and I missed Snowflake and her kittens. The library was different, a different atmosphere, different people, and it was almost like home but not quite. I hoped we could return to the Mall soon.

With a sigh I turned away from the window, thinking about what needed doing.

"Faaayyyyeee!"

I darted back to the window and gasped. Dev and Marty, pushing the trolley in front of them, were sprinting down the road. A second later, as the strays scattered, I found out why. I heard the siren before the car came around the corner, roller-bladed Locos around it.

I ran from the room and half fell down the stairs in my haste. I saw them though the window as I ran towards the door. I fumbled with the padlock, tangled my fingers in the chain. Now I could hear them through the door. I tore it open.

They ran through. Marty skidded to a halt and helped me close the door as Locos tried to force it open. I wrapped the chain around the door handles as Marty held the door closed. Dev, having got the trolley under control, rushed to help. The padlock clicked closed and we relaxed.

Then a window smashed. I crouched instinctively, protecting my head.

Marty swore.

Outside, the Locos were jeering and shouting, trying to get in. Another window smashed, and another.

"The shelves!" Dev shouted above the din. We knew what he meant. We scattered, hauling half-empty book shelves across the floor to block the windows.

"Hurry up!" a too-familiar voice from outside ordered the Locos. "Get inside."

I froze, just for a second, but then another window smashed and I had to block the windows. I pulled harder, straining my back in my haste. A window was blocked, but the bookcase wasn't secure. As soon as it was in place, they started pushing against it, trying to tip it over. I grabbed a chair and wedged it under a shelf, and hoped it would hold as I ran off to get another bookcase to block another broken window.

"Idiots!" Ebony's voice shouted at the Locos. "Get inside before they block the windows. There's probably food and stuff in there."

As I pulled a bookcase across a second window, a shelf the other side of the door toppled. Marty and Dev hauled it back up, pushing Locos away.

"What do we do?" I asked, leaning against the bookcase to stop the Locos pushing it over.

"Hey!" Ebony shouted outside. "There's an open window up there. You lot, get your lazy behinds up there right now."

I swore, and without thinking about the bookcase, I pelted towards the stairs and took them three at a time in my haste, hoping that Marty and Dev could hold them off. There was no choice. If they got into the staff room, they'd be able to take all our food and water.

A Loco's hand was on the sill. As I stared, another hand reached up. I ran for the window as the Loco pulled himself up little by little. His forearm, and I was half way across the room, blocked by the dinner table and the untidily-left chairs. The top of his head, helmetted like many Locos. His face, painted in red and blue and black tribe paint.

I couldn't move quickly enough. I slipped on a patch of wet floor, nearly tripped over a dropped book, half-fell towards the window. I pushed his face back, but his grip on the inside of the sill was strong. I tried to pry his fingers away, wishing I didn't bite my nails as I scratched ineffectually at his hands. Desperately, I elbowed him in the face, reaching past him with my other hand. I grabbed the handle of the open window as he pulled himself towards me, snarling. I yanked on the window, realising too late that if it smashed we'd be in even more trouble.

The glass stayed intact. The Loco losened his grip and I took the opportunity to shove him back. He fell to the ground and I closed the window and secured it. Below, Ebony was shouting and screaming angrily. I took a few seconds to study the scene outside. There were more Locos than I'd ever seen, and standing in the police car with her torso out of the sun roof was Ebony. It took me a moment to realise that the Loco stood on the ground beside the car was Spike. So much for that, then.

As I watched, Ebony's expression changed from one of anger to one of triumph. Panicking, I ran back downstairs to find Locos climbing in through one of the windows. Marty and Dev frantically fought to hold them back. I grabbed the umbrella from the front desk and charged in, shouting. Marty ducked under a Loco's punch. I took the opportunity and swung the umbrella at the Loco's face.

He fell back, but more squeezed through the broken window. Somewhere to my left, another window was breached.

"We have to get out here," Dev shouted over the din.

"Right," Marty called back. "On three, we make for the fire escape. Okay? One!"

I swung wide with the umbrella and took a Loco in the neck. He gagged and fell back as Marty shouted "Two!" I thurst the umbrella at another Loco as he clambered through the window. He grabbed the end. Marty shouted "Three!" and I let the umbrella go, turned and fled after my friends through the shelves.

The leading Locos weren't far behind us when we made it through the fire door. We didn't bother shutting the door behind us – what was the point? - but ran down the alleyway behind the library, leaving our temporary home, our stores, and our hard work behind. But there were no time to dwell on what we'd lost. We had to save what we still had. Dev soon took the lead, his long legs giving him an advantage, and Marty had always been quick in spite of his height. I, meanwhile, had barely had to run at all since the virus, and I was badly out of shape. I was only lucky that the Locos who'd come into the library through the windows had removed their roller blades first. As it was, they weren't far behind me.

It was Ebony that saved me, strangely.

"Forget the strays," she shouted from somewhere. "Search the building for supplies."

Her order didn't stop us from running, though. We didn't want to be too close if she changed her mind. We rounded a few corners and I suddenly recognised the street we were in, just as Dev ducked down through the broken window that was the entrance to his den. Marty followed then I joined them. I leaned against the wall, breathing heavily, as the boys pulled the wooden cover over the entrance.

---

[Note: I've not been working on this for quite a while, but I do have some bonus material - I drew a couple of pictures, one of Dev and one of Faye, but for some reason I cna't post links. Let's see if this works: Just replace the words in square brackets with what the word is.

http [colon, slash, slash] yfrog [dot] com [slash] 0fdevdrawingj

http [colon, slash, slash] yfrog [dot] com [slash] 0ffayedrawingj

Hope that works.]


	25. Absolute emergency

"What happened?" I asked at last.

"They were on patrol and they saw us," Marty said. "Simple as. I told Dev to leave the trolley, but he wouldn't."

"I thought we'd be safe once we got inside the Library," Dev said defensively.

I shrugged. "You should have left it. Even if they weren't after the batteries, they were probably slowing you down."

"Well," Marty said, "It happened." He shrugged sullenly.

"What do we do now?" I asked. "We can't go back."

"We could," Dev said. "Give it a few hours, they'll have cleared out."

"And left the place in a mess," Marty said, "Taking anything of value with them." He sighed. "They might even decide to burn the books," he added. "There'd be no point in going back, even if we could be sure they weren't going to stay there long."

"We'll have to go to the Mall, then," I said. "I just hope Lex doesn't cause trouble."

"Is that really our only option?" Dev asked.

"We can try," Marty said, getting up from where he was perched on the old desk.

"Wait," Dev said. "Maybe we should wait a few hours, give the Locos time to move out of the sector."

Marty hesitated, then nodded and sat back down.

"We were really starting to make it work," I whined. "The planters, the water purifier..." I sighed. "Damn, this is stupid. What was the point, if we were just gonna end up crawling back to the Mallrats so soon anyway?"

"We always planned to rejoin them, though, right?" Dev pointed out. "That's what all that was about. Convincing them that Marty isn't Zoot any more."

I shifted and pushed a stray strand of hair back from my face. "Well, yeah, but I sorta imagined it differently. I figured _they_'d ask _us_ back, for a start."

"It doesn't really matter," Marty pointed out. "Getting back is the goal. How we do it isn't important."

"Yeah," I agreed relucantly. "I just know Lex is going to make something of it. You guys don't know him like I do. Anyway, we've now lost all hope of plan B. Everything rides on getting back into the Mall. We can hardly hold out here long."

"It'd getting close to lunch time," Dev said.

"You reckon this counts as an absolute emergency?" I asked him.

He fished out the key to the filing cabinet from under his shirt and held it up.

"What's that for?" Marty asked.

"There are emergency supplies in the filing cabinet," I told him, while Dev unlocked it.

Dev opened the bottom drawer and produced the two tins. Baked beans and pineapple chunks.

Marty shook his head. "Put them back," he said. "We can go hungry for a few hours. There might be another time we need them. Or if the Mallrats don't let us stay, we'll need them then. Anyway..."

From his back pocket he pulled a bag of cheesy biscuits – "Mini Cheddars" - and held it up.

"They're a bit broken. I'd forgotten about them til now. Found them in a drawer in the electrics shop we were in earlier, along with a banana-shaped pile of mould. Must have been the owner's lunch, before the virus."

"Should we put those in the filing cabinet too?" I asked. "Or eat them now?" I was starting to feel pretty hungry myself.

"Eat them," Dev suggested, turning the key in the lock. He dropped the key under his shirt as he straightened.

Marty opened the packet, took half a biscuit and ate it, then offered the bag first to me, then to Dev. We ate in silence, and the pack was soon gone. I was still hungry, but it would help us last a bit longer.

"Maybe we shouldn't have eaten those," Dev said uneasily. "Now I'm really thirsty."

"What about that fruit drink you picked up?" Marty asked. "Did that go in the trolley?"

"Yeah. Sorry. Didn't expect it'd matter."

"Next time we come here with supplies, we leave some water and a few more tins," I suggested.

The other two agreed.

"Man, sitting in here is so boring," Marty said. "The Locos are probably still raiding the library. It we go in the opposite direction, we could avoid them completely."

We were just standing up to look out the window, when the sound of a siren squealed in the distance, and it was coming closer.

"Maybe not," Dev said, peering around the edge of the graffiti'd plyboard. The police car passed slowly. For the next hour, it never went beyond hearing range. They were patrolling the area, possibly in search of us, perhaps merely looking for some poor stray to chase and bully and rob. We didn't say much, in case they heard and realised we were there. Instead we looked nervously at each other, and watched the only way in and out of the pokey little office, a broken window covered by a sheet of plyboard.

"I think they've gone," I whispered at last, ten minutes after the siren had faded into the distance. "Maybe we should make a move now."

"Yeah," Dev said. "I'll have a look outside, see if there are any signs they might be coming back."

He watched carefully in both directions for more than three minutes before he gave the nod. "Let's move."

Other strays had starting moving again, slowly, carefully. They watched us as we moved through the city, but never drew close. Likewise, we gave them their space, and were careful not to act threateningly.

Moving carefully but quickly, we were soon behind the Mall, standing around the entrance to the sewers.

"Right," Marty said. "Down we go."


End file.
